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Gillingham midfielder Dan Phillips is ready for another battle after emerging unscathed from a weekend win at Lincoln City.
The Watford loanee was on the end of a heavy challenge just before the break, earning home player Ted Bishop a booking. Thankfully Phillips managed to step out of the way as Bishop slid in with studs showing.
“I think it was a bit of a foul,” said the Gills man when asked to comment on the challenge against Lincoln. “I can’t tell for sure but it was a bit high on the leg. I will be fine.”
Bolton are up next for the Gills, heading to Priestfield this Saturday.
He won’t want to miss that match, which will see Phillips and his team-mates coming up against their former captain Kyle Dempsey in the middle of the park for visitors Bolton.
Commenting on meeting his former skipper, Phillips grinned as he said: “We are looking forward to it! I am not sure he is but I am looking forward to it.” But he insisted: “Every game is the same for us, it doesn’t matter who it is.”
The Gills are moving towards safety on current form and Phillips enjoyed three points at Lincoln on Saturday.
“It was an excellent team performance from start to finish,” he said. “Defensively we were resolute, they rarely troubled us. It was a deserved three points and something to build on for the rest of the season.
“We are a team that like to frustrate, that like to bully teams as such, but we also have quality on the ball and we have shown it.
“Right from the start we saw they were there for the taking and we could have been one or two up at half-time [the Gills hit the post and had one off the line early on]. We kept going, persevered and got the win in the end.”
Vadaine Oliver put the Gills ahead with 15 minutes left and any fears of a late Lincoln fightback were ended when Ben Thompson thumped in a second on 91 minutes.
“Limbs!” said Phillips, as he described the celebration with the away fans in the Stacey West Stand. “I think the fans were supporting us from minute one and so to give back to them, everyone was ecstatic.
“We hope they went home very happy, the support was amazing as always and they were pushing for us throughout the game. We thank them for the support.”
It was Phillips’ first start under manager Neil Harris and he made the most of it. He won possession to create an early opening for Thompson that only a desperate block on the line kept out.
He continued to impress throughout as part of a four-man midfield.
On being patient to get that chance, Phillips said: “He (the manager) has come in and picked a team and we have done well so I have had to bide my time. I was really happy to have got picked and hopefully I will be in and around it as much as possible, just happy to help. Hopefully I can keep producing.”
The gap to safety is down to three points but Phillips said: “For us, we are only focused on our own results, the next game, but every three points is massive for us. Since he (the manager) has come in we have been a lot more solid, we have had better results recently, we are just building on it game by game.
“The players never lost that belief and if you were in and around us you would know that every game we go into we have the same belief and the same intensity and we have a good spirit in the camp.”
