Gills manager Justin Edinburgh reacts to Saturday's 3-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra
Gillingham manager Justin Edinburgh was delighted to see his side get back to winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra at MEMS Priestfield Stadium that exhibited the full strength and versatility of his squad.
An early header from Dominic Samuel gave the Gills a half-time lead, before an own goal by Jon Guthrie and Josh Wright’s first goal for the club sealed three vital points for the home side.
Injuries forced Edinburgh to change a the diamond formation - favoured for much of the season to date - to a 3-5-2 system and he was pleased with the effect it had.
“Today highlighted so much of what a squad’s about. We changed the formation of the team today and it gave us a real good performance,” he said.
“We just felt that with three at the back it allowed Jermaine [McGlashan] and Brennan [Dickenson] to have that license on the wings and it freed up George [Williams] just in behind the strikers to try and cause problems.
“We needed to get our attacking players into the team and we changed something that we probably wouldn’t have done had all the players been available for us.
“We passed the ball well, got good crosses in the box and pleased to get back to winning ways. I always felt that we were comfortable and that we would always get the third.
“The result today makes last week’s point [away at Scunthorpe] even greater.”
Gillingham’s injury problems mounted during the game with loanee Adam El-Abd and Doug Loft both withdrawn, with Edinburgh revealing the differing extent of both player’s problems.
He added: “I think Adam’s is a real minor strain. I think we’ve caught it quick enough and hopefully that won’t be long. But Lofty, it’s not looking promising; it looks like an Achilles problem. He leaves here tonight on crutches which is a massive blow.
“We’re really being hit hard right now. We’ve worked hard on the sports science side and rehabilitation to get everything right, but we’ve been hit in a short period of time.
“We’ll assess [the injury situation] on Monday and I know the chairman will allow us to bring reinforcements in.”
Finally, Edinburgh praised the impact the crowd had on the performance of his Gillingham team.
“The crowd were fantastic,”he said. “They really propelled a positive vibe into the stadium, I think that got to the players.”