Gillingham chairman Paul Scally delivers his latest set of programme notes.
We are now entering the tense yet exciting business end of the season with five of our remaining eight games being played at home.
It is an often used phrase at this time of the football calendar that these remaining games are all Cup Finals but, with most teams in this highly-competitive League either striving to secure a top six slot at one end of the table, or fighting to maintain their League status at the other, it comes down to survival of the fittest over the last few weeks of the season, hence why the term is apt at this time of the year.
It now boils down to us remaining firmly focused on gathering as many points as possible in order for us to achieve our second aim of the season by securing a play-off place come the end of this campaign.
The loan players we have brought in have added both strength and depth to the squad and with our injured players returning to full fitness the manager will have a near full squad available as we enter a hectic schedule of seven games in April.
What I find baffling is that, despite our success this season that has led to us currently being joint top scorers in League One with 65 goals in 38 games, we have only been selected once for a live Sky TV game. That game was away to Wigan (the other side currently on 65 goals after 39 games).
We did have a potential opportunity for our final away game against Burton to be selected as a Sky game but this would involve the game being moved from a 3pm kick off on Saturday 30th April to the Bank Holiday Monday with a 12.15pm start so our decision was to put our fans first and kindly decline the offer.
When I have reviewed the distribution share within our League it is extremely worrying that two thirds of the Sky TV game fees have gone to five clubs and this cannot be fair or right. It is an issue that I will be strongly raising at the Football League’s Annual Conference come the end of the season as all clubs should be treated in a more equitable manner over the course of a season.
On a brighter note and as the season draws to a close we are now putting together the final touches to our Player of the Year events. As we now have our new bar, the Factory, up and running we are aiming to run two simultaneous events at Priestfield with a formal dinner and Awards Evening in the Great Hall plus a more informal evening in the Factory.
More details on both events will be coming out soon so put Sunday May 1st in your diary as we have already secured the the X Factor girl band Mon Amie for The Factory. The Manager and Players will be attending both events so it promises to be an evening not to be missed.
* These notes first appeared in the Gillingham - Coventry City matchday programme.