Gillingham striker Oli Hawkins scored against Notts County and looks ahead of a League 2 clash against Swindon Town on Tuesday night at Priestfield
05:00, 12 February 2024
Gillingham’s in-form striker Oli Hawkins admitted he wasn’t clued up about the rivalry with Swindon but doesn’t need extra motivation to beat them.
Hawkins netted in the 3-1 win at Notts County on Friday night and knows that they must keep the winning form going on Tuesday evening when they face Gillingham’s old rivals Swindon Town at Priestfield.
The Gills have the play-off places in sight, and they briefly occupied a place inside the top seven after beating Notts County, before dropping back to ninth on Saturday. A top-three spot still isn’t beyond them but that would take some doing.
Looking ahead to the visit of Swindon, Hawkins was asked about the rivalry and said: “I’m not too sure about that but it’s going to be another tough game, a completely different game probably, back home.
“The gaffer (Stephen Clemence) has said previously that he wants us to show some character to go away from home and win and then go home and win as well.
“We want to win and show another good performance and just get up the league.”
The Gills leapfrogged Notts County with the win on Friday.
Hawkins said: “It shows that we are more than capable of getting in the top seven, top six, or even the top three, obviously the top three is a tough ask but our aim is the play-offs at the moment.
“If we keep winning, grinding results and having good form then we have a really good chance.
“Home and away we need to keep some consistency and get points on the board and keep fighting. It will be really tough, there are some good teams in this league, we have a few of those teams coming up in the next few weeks and we just need to keep fighting.
“We know we are good enough, we have a good squad, we have good players and we just have to be ready.”
Hawkins headed home an equaliser at Notts County on Friday as the Gills got a fightback started. Goals from Max Clark and Conor Masterson then sealed a 3-1 win.
“It was a brilliant performance,” said the big front-man. “We knew they would have a lot of the ball, it would be tough and we had to dig in and we did and we came away with three points and a really good performance
“It is always tough going 1-0 down so early and the boys showed great character. Getting the early goal helped us with a bit of momentum and we knew we could get back in the game and we did.
“For me, that was the best win (of the season). Obviously, I haven’t played much this season (after injury) but it’s an unbelievable win. We knew possession-wise we wouldn’t touch the ball much but we had to work hard and that’s what we did.”
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