Gillingham midfielder Alex MacDonald believes this week’s live TV game against Lincoln City will be their biggest challenge of the season so far.

The Gills are set to host the title-chasers at Priestfield on Friday night infront of the Sky Sports cameras.

MacDonald played a key role at Sunderland after replacing the injured Tom O’Connor (groin) in the starting line-up and will hope his efforts have won him a place to start against The Imps. He scored in the 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light and also rattled the bar.

It would also be a chance for MacDonald to come up against his former boss Michael Appleton, who signed him for Oxford United in February 2015.

During his time at the U’s, under Appleton, MacDonald played at Wembley in the Football League Trophy final and won promotion from League 2. His two years there ended when Steve Evans signed him for Mansfield Town on transfer deadline day in 2017.

Looking ahead to the match, the 30-year-old said: “They don’t come much better than live television on Sky Sports and up against a former manager of mine, a fantastic team who have done brilliant this year.

“It’s going to be our hardest test this season I believe. They play some real good stuff, they have some fantastic individual players and a fantastic manager in Michael Appleton.

“We will be very well prepared for the game and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Appleton won the approval of the board at Oxford to pay cash for MacDonald when he joined them in February 2015, signing from Burton Albion. They were two exciting years.

“It was a very successful two years and I really enjoyed my time under him. We had promotion, went to Wembley, had cup runs and as a lower league footballer it ticked all the boxes for what you would hope to do in your career.

“I had a fantastic couple of years under him, it was a great team and a great spirit and I look back on those years very fondly.”

MacDonald has had a hit and miss campaign so far with the Gills.

Last weekend’s goalscoring heroics at Sunderland followed a home game against the same side which led to him being sent off. The manager didn’t hide his frustration with the player but he showed what he was all about at the Stadium of Light.

Recalling the first Sunderland match, MacDonald admitted: “Me and the manager weren’t best of mates after that game! I made a terrible error, a bad challenge and ultimately it cost the team. It was another game we were well on top, one we deserved to get something out of, but when someone lets the team down like that it was always going to be a difficult.

“I was just pleased to have got the nod to start (on Saturday) and hopefully rewarded him by scoring a goal. I should have had a second too.”

Moments after MacDonald made it 1-1, a well-hit volley crashed off the bar.

He said: “I caught it really nicely, I thought it would nestle in the net. On another day I might have scored and it could have changed the outcome of the game.”

The Gills ended up conceding a second goal and needed a last-minute goal to rescue a point. It was the least they deserved after giving Sunderland a real test on their own soil.

MacDonald said: “When you score late to get something from the game you are always going to be happy but it’s a game we could have taken all three points.

“Against a huge, huge club we dominated for most of the game. We deserved all three points.”

The Gills head into Friday night’s game four unbeaten, having found a bit of consistency, something that had been problematic in the first half of the season.

The former Scotland under-21 player said: “What this squad has been crying out for all year is consistency and that has let us down.

“We are starting to find our consistency and in terms of results we are now unbeaten in four, we take all of the positives into what is a massive game on Friday.

“We have brought in some really good players recently with a bit of experience. We have brought in exactly what we needed and put that together with what we already had in the dressing room.

“We have some quality and anyone watching on Saturday could see how good a team this is. If we can put on a run and have a late surge it could be an exciting end of season for the Gills.”

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