The Gills travel to Rochdale in Sky Bet League One on Saturday, March 18, 3pm kick-off
Sky Bet League One
Crown Oil Arena
Saturday, March 18
3pm kick-off
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Andy Haines
Assistants: Stephen Wade and Geoffrey Liddle
Fourth Official: Peter Gibbons
The Gills travel to Greater Manchester to take on Rochdale on Saturday. Pay on the day tickets are still available for the trip to the Crown Oil Arena (cash only) with no price increase.
TEAM NEWS
Bradley Garmston and Rory Donnelly will once again not feature against Rochdale and it is likely that Chris Herd will also miss out, after not making the squad against Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night because of an injured knee.
After back-to-back wins the Gills lost heavily to a Bolton side gunning for promotion, but head coachAdy Pennock has urged the players to take the defeat on the chin and bounce back on Saturday.
"I went into the changing rooms and told them to learn from it, forget about it and make sure they are in and nice and bright in preparation for Rochdale," said Pennock.
"I didn't go in there and start shouting at them, because they have been fantastic for us. We are really looking forward to Saturday now, it [the Bolton defeat] makes it even bigger."
The Gills could move up one place to sixteenth in the Sky Bet League One table with a win against their opponents on Saturday.
THE OPPOSITION
Rochdale sit in thirteenth in the League One table after 35 games. When the two teams met at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium back in November - a game the Gills won 3-0 - Dale were in the play-off positions. However, Keith Hill's side are without a win in 11 games since January 7 and come into the clash after losing 2-1 at Scunthorpe United in midweek. Hill believes his side deserved something from the game against the out-of-form Iron and was pleased with his team's performance.
“I don’t believe in luck, per se, but we’re going through some bad luck," said Hill. “I thought the performance merited a victory, never mind a draw, so I’m trying to make sense of what’s happened tonight after coming away with a loss. I thought we were excellent but the players are dejected at the minute because they know they played well tonight."
A win for Dale could see them climb as high as tenth in the table.
LAST TIME WE MET
The teams' last Sky Bet League One meeting came at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium back in November, with the the Gills running out 3-0 winners.
Frank Nouble opened the scoring on 53 minutes, before Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Mark Byrne scored late on to wrap up three points in our biggest win of the season so far.