Alex Jakubiak hopes his equalising goal on Saturday opens the door to the starting XI at Gillingham.

An impeccable finish levelled things up at Fleetwood in the League 1 clash at Highbury, cancelling out Paddy Madden’s opener.

The on-loan Watford striker took his goal tally for the season to five after bending his effort around the home keeper with eight minutes left.

He said: “I came on and tried to be as positive as I could – thankfully I got a goal.

“I have always been pushing for a start, nobody is happy when they are not playing, but you have to earn the right to get into the team.”

Jakubiak has had to be patient. His last league start came more than a month ago and he had been an unused substitute in the last two games.

He made his opportunity count on Saturday with a positive 20 minutes and a great finish.

“I was just thinking positive,” said the 23-year-old.

“I took my first touch into the box and used the defender’s body and guided it around him.

“It has been frustrating (being not involved) but you see the team have been getting results and doing well, in the league and the FA Cup.

“It can be frustrating being on the bench but when they are picking up wins, or playing well, there is nothing you can do.

“You have to be patient and when you get an opportunity, like I did, you just have to do what you can.”

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The Gills were pushing for a winner in the closing stages.

Jakubiak said: “We are kind of disappointed we didn’t get another goal at the end. We had a few chances to nick it, but it wasn’t an easy place to get a result, so we will take a point and move onto next week.

“We had changed the formation, we tried to be more positive and it worked out in the end.

“We had chances at the end to get a winner, I thought we would, we had the ball flashing across the goal, but we’ll take the point.”

The Gills are back at home next weekend, against lowly MK Dons. Form at Priestfield has been impressive, winning their last five matches without conceding a goal.

“We have made it a fortress at home,” said the striker.

“Against teams like Sunderland, with players who are technically very good, we put our game on them and deserved the win and the same against Doncaster, we ran them into the ground and got a result.

"Opposition teams won’t want to come.

“The confidence has been there from the start, and particularly in the last month, we have had that extra buzz in the camp. That comes with winning games as well, you come into training and there is that spark and you can just enjoy it a bit more.”

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