Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth has urged fans to pack out Priestfield this weekend and be part of something special.

The Gills stretched their unbeaten run to a record-breaking 21 games with a 3-1 win at Newport - and now Ainsworth wants the stands bouncing when Harrogate Town come to town.

“Managers will come and go, players will come and go. Fans are here forever,” said Ainsworth, as his own unbeaten run as manager goes on.

“I talk to people in the streets and when I stay up on a Thursday at times they’re all saying things like, ‘Yeah, we’ve moved out of the area, but we still come back every Saturday and drive 100 miles to come and watch Gills, because that’s my team’. It’s superb.

“I want to get as many as we can in for [the game] against Harrogate. I think it would be a really good occasion.

“Win, lose or draw, right? Come and be part of this record. Let’s see how many we can get down in Priestfield, because when that place is rocking, it really is rocking.”

More than 600 fans were in Newport to watch the Gills make history and the club are opening up the Town End this Saturday in a bid to boost capacity. It was nearly sold out in the middle of the week.

Ainsworth’s men are top of League 2 and the Gills have made it four wins from four so far at home.

They will be red-hot favourites to win in front of a packed crowd, but it’s not always been straightforward in such games. It would be typical Gills not to win amid such expectation.

But Ainsworth’s already broken with tradition so far. The victory at Newport’s Rodney Parade ground was their first ever and broke a run of six straight defeats against the Welsh side.

The goalscoring problems appear to be easing and the team have scored at least one goal in all of Ainsworth’s games so far.

“We’ve got something special and I’m excited what we can achieve,” said the Gills boss.

“I’ve got a brilliant assistant and great staff. I remember the first meeting when I sat down with all the staff and said, ‘Right, what’s the issue? What’s the problem? I’ve heard this, I’ve heard that’.

“The staff, fair play. They stuck up for themselves, stuck up for some of the players. And they came in and had to work things out quick. But they are a brilliant group. They really are.

“I’m really excited about what this group can achieve and it’s nice to be part of it.

“I’m sure we’ll come off the rails at some stage, something will happen. We may lose a game!

“But [when we do] I’ll prove to them we’ve got their backs. We’ll go again and we’ll pick it up again. But every single one of them gives everything for me every day.

“We do clips. They stay behind. They do the preparation right.

“We’ve got something really special going and that’s a nice record to have and really good for the players. They deserve it and I hope every one of their names gets written down in history because they deserve that.

“They’ve worked their socks off for that record.”

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