Crucial period ahead for Gills

BY this time next week we could well have a much clearer picture of which way Gillingham’s season is going to pan out.
With two games scheduled in three days it could well be a defining period.
First up is a trip to a Burton side who have wobbled of late but are having a surprisingly good season.
The toughness of that trip could rest on how well some of the Burton players are recovering from injuries, with strikers Billy Kee and Justin Richards on the treatment table recently.
The Gills follow up Saturday’s trip to Burton with a home game, live on Sky, against second placed Southend.
These aren’t the kind of games you need after conceding eight goals in your last two games.
For Andy Hessenthaler’s men they should be looking at four points minimum. Any less and those play-off places might start looking like a distant dream.
Hopes of automatic promotion should now be forgotten and only the most optimistic of fans can hope the Gills can gatecrash that party. It would need an incredible run of results now, indeed the Gills will need to double their current points tally to stand any hope, with just 19 games left.
The Gills are already nine points off sixth placed Torquay and with Accrington (8th) and Oxford (7th) - who hold the final play-off position at the moment - meeting this weekend, the gap between Hess’s men and the play-offs would definitely grow, if they don’t get a win at Burton.
At the start of the season the Gills set themselves a rough target of two points a game, on average, to achieve promotion.
That was assuming they would need 80 points plus to get into the automatic places.
Their current points to games ratio is just over 1.5.
If they keep going at this rate then they’ll finish the season with 68 points, which would be the same as they finished last season.
Fans won’t be happy to see the team not only miss the play-offs again but also make no progress.
Last season that points total just enabled Torquay to scrape into the final play-off spot, having had a point deducted for fielding an ineligible player. They finished above the Gills on goal difference.
What is for certain is that Gillingham need to improve or the season will be another one to forget.
Only once in the last decade has a points tally lower than 68 bagged a club a play-off spot, when Lincoln got on board with just 66 points after becoming the draw specialists. They did, however, only lose 10 games. That’s how many the Gills have already achieved.
Points tallies aside, the Gills now have two massive games to focus on.
Two defeats and the play-offs will be a struggle, a draw and a win and there is hope, two wins and it’s game on again.
Let’s hope it’s the latter.