Gillingham are determined to take their play-off chase down to the wire - but only a win will be good enough this Saturday.

Last weekend’s victory over Barrow kept them in the hunt but midweek results didn’t do them many favours and chances of a top-seven finish remain unlikely.

The Gills face a Mansfield Town side who secured their promotion on Tuesday night with a home win over Accrington and they’ll be in party spirits when Stephen Clemence’s men head to Field Mill.

Gillingham need all sorts of twists to stand a chance of making the play-offs now but will have to focus on their own job this Saturday, which is to beat the Stags.

“We will keep fighting and will go and do our best at Mansfield,” said Clemence.

“It is nice to have a slim chance and we want to try and take it as far as we can. We know it’s out of our hands, though.

“We will keep giving it our best and you never know, funnier things can happen in football where we could win a couple and teams don’t get the results that they need.

“But we have a tough game at Mansfield, a very good footballing team, and they have done ever so well, that will be a hard game and that is what we have to take care of first.”

With the Gills so close to making the play-offs, Clemence admits there are games he’ll look back on and wonder ‘what if?’.

He said: “I have probably felt like that with a couple of results but football does funny things, doesn’t it? Let’s see what happens after next weekend and see where we’re at.

“But you always look back on seasons, whether successful or not, there are probably regrets there and I am sure we have all got them at the moment, that’s myself and all the staff and players, but we still have a slim chance and we’ll keep going.

“The lads have only been a couple of results away - a couple of draws at home and turning them into wins - into being exactly where we need to be.

“They have done a lot right this season and, yes, we would have liked better results in the run-in but it is easy saying it and not always easy doing it when you are under pressure.”

The Gills have been left wishing for results elsewhere to go their way after just two wins from their last nine. Victory over Barrow last Saturday boosted the mood but the club look set to miss out on their play-off target.

Chairman Brad Galinson was already looking ahead before the match against Barrow, writing: “I am disappointed that we will likely miss out on the play-offs, but I still want to finish the season strongly.

“It is important to end a campaign with momentum as it will be psychologically beneficial heading into the summer.

“Although we are likely to miss out on this year’s play-offs, I celebrate the progress we have made both on and off the pitch in the space of 16 months.

“I look forward to the challenge of pushing for promotion next season.”

Clemence joked before Mansfield’s midweek match that he hoped the Stags would seal promotion and “go out drinking all week - it might be an easier game for us!”.

Mansfield playing without pressure may be a tough challenge too, however. They start the weekend second in the table behind newly-crowned League 2 champions Stockport.

Regardless of the weekend result, Clemence knows he has work to do to make the Gills more consistent to challenge at the top end of the table.

“We just haven’t had the consistency and put the ball in the net enough,” he said.

“They did [last Saturday] and I was really proud of them. I love working with them every day and I think they enjoy what we do on the training ground and I think the group are right with me and Robbie (Stockdale, assistant).

“We have to make improvements going forward, we know that, but that will be the aim. The short-term aim is to go and get a result this weekend.”