Gills boss Justin Edinburgh knows basement boys Colchester won’t give his team an easy ride.

The Gills lost 2-1 at Colchester in September, one of only five wins earned by the Us in the first half of the League 1 campaign.

Despite claiming back to back away wins, Edinburgh won’t be taking anything for granted.

“They beat us at their place and it’s going to be another difficult game,” he said.

“They are scrapping for the points as much as we need them and they are fighting for their lives.

“We want to keep points to stay in the hunt.

“I thought we did enough to win that game (in Colchester) but in those derby games the form goes out of the window and that will be the same on Monday.”

The Gills have reached the halfway point of the season sitting one point off the top of the table in League 1, amassing 44 points from 23 games – 19 more than at the same stage least year.

They were five points off the bottom of the table exiting Christmas last year.

Edinburgh said: “It has been an excellent return and we are in a fantastic position and one we are really enjoying.

“We are starting to get a bit of consistency. We had a bit of a spell where we were inconsistent but we’re hopefully finding that consistency now at a really important time.”

Gillingham have failed to beat Colchester in their last six visits to Priestfield.

Saturday's visitors lost 2-0 on Boxing Day at home to Southend in what was new manager Kevin Keen's first game in charge.