Form counts for nothing this weekend, insists Gillingham boss Steve Lovell.

Walsall head to Priestfield on Saturday having taken just two points from their last six league games while suffering a 5-2 defeat to Bolton in the FA Cup.

But Lovell will be wary of a team that were battling among the front runners at the start of the season and gave his side a torrid time during the first 45 minutes in a 2-1 defeat at the Bescott Stadium in August.

“You don’t know which team is going to turn up,” said Lovell.

“Walsall played really well against us for the first half up there and caused us problems, but in the second half we took over. We know what to expect.

“They are not on the best of runs at the moment but it doesn’t count for anything. We weren’t on the best of runs when we went and beat Portsmouth 2-0 down there, it can happen.

“We have to prepare as normal, make sure we perform again and give everything.”

Chief tormentor that day in Walsall was lively forward Morgan Ferrier, but he went off injured in last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Scunthorpe.

The Gills sit a place and a point below the Saddlers and they know a win could lift them as high as 15th with mid-table Accrington up next in League 1.

“It is an important rest of January now,” added Lovell.

“They are winnable games, obviously, they all are. Walsall are known to be a good footballing team, they always have been.

“We have to make sure we are ready for them and put on a good defensive performance.

“Their front men are dangerous. They have got boys who can score goals but we are a handful going forward and we will always create goals.

“We can’t be scoring three goals to win games every week, we should be able to score one and say that’s it, we win 1-0.

“That is something we need to work on a bit more, not just with Tomas Holy and the back three or four, everyone in the team doing their job to stop them getting into position to create.

“We have to take it forward now. We have had two good results in January (beating Cardiff in the FA Cup and Burton in the league) and there are three games to go.

“Let’s have a good January like we did last year, push it forward and take it on for the rest of the season.”