Mark Stimson hopes Saturday’s performance in Gillingham's 0-0 draw against Carlisle is a sign of things to come for the rest of the season.

It was a game Gillingham could easily have won, as they came closest to scoring when Simeon Jackson hit the bar but Stimson was happy with the point

He said: “Hopefully things are coming good at the right time. This is the time we have to deliver and if we can get out of this situation, it would be a fantastic achievement. It’s definitely possible.

“There were a lot of plusses to take into Tuesday’s game and if we can do our work there properly, then it will set it up nicely.

“The fans might have gone home afterwards for the first time in a while and thought ‘we aren’t a bad side why are we doing it now?’ My message would be that we’ve got our strongest boys on board now.

“We hadn’t had Nicky Southall for six weeks and haven’t been able to put all these players together for two games on a trot. We’ve now been able to do it and that’s the benchmark we have set ourselves.”

Stimson was able to recall Danny Cullip, Andrew Crofts and Southall from injury and he said: “It’s the strongest team I’ve had available since I’ve been here.

“We’ve shown against a top team that we can match them and if we can keep those players out on the pitch then we can win some games.”