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Gillingham boosted their play-off hopes at the weekend - but the automatic promotion places aren’t beyond them.
The Gills came off the pitch 1-0 winners over Wrexham last Saturday - the visitors starting the day third in League 2 - and are now 10 points adrift of the top three with 12 games remaining.
More: Gills drop a place in midweek
Stephen Clemence’s side would still need a drastic increase in form to make the top three but, having also held then-leaders Stockport County to a draw, they’ve proved that they can take points off the front-runners.
The teams finishing fourth to seventh will contest the play-offs in May but midfielder Ethan Coleman, who was the weekend game sponsor’s man-of-the-match, hasn’t ruled anything out.
Asked if they could still make up the gap to the top three, Coleman said: “I don’t think it is [too much to make up]. It has been done before.
“If we go on a good run, which I believe we can, then we can push for it, but the main thing is the play-offs.”
League 2 table as it stands
Gillingham are one of many teams hoping for success this season in a heavily-congested table. Walsall went from 16th to ninth at the weekend.
Coleman knows cementing a play-off spot is their focus.
“Consistency is the main thing now,” he said.
“The league is quite strange, 16th to seventh is so tight, we just have to do what we do as a team and get points on board.”
Picking up results against the leading sides has understandably given the players confidence. A win and a draw against two top teams was a healthy return last week.
Coleman said: “We’re really happy with the return against teams at the top end of the league and it was a massive performance for us [on Saturday] and some massive points we’ve picked up.
“Going up against these big teams and getting results like that shows what we can do as a team and it is just about consistency now and doing the same thing away from home.”
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Gillingham head to Salford on Saturday and then face an away game at Barrow on Tuesday night.
The Gills showed more attacking intent at the weekend after being criticised for showing little goal threat against Stockport in the game before that.
Coleman said: “In terms of performance, it was a lot better, we played well and the result was massive.
“Defence is one of our strengths and we were strong.
“We got the goal and we were buzzing after the performance. It is a massive result for the squad, a boost we all needed after the performances against Swindon (losing a 2-1 lead in stoppage-time) and Stockport at home.
“The performance wasn’t great against Stockport but the point was important and we’ve gone onto the next game and got three, helped by the fans, and we massively appreciate that.”
