Gillingham head coach Stephen Clemence on background knowledge he has on next League 2 opponents Crewe Alexandra as he provides fitness update on Jonny Williams, Dom Jefferies and Josh Andrews

Head coach Stephen Clemence knows plenty about Gillingham’s next opponents.

The play-off chasing Gills begin a vital League 2 double-header at home to Crewe on Friday, a match which is followed by an Easter Monday journey to Harrogate.

Eighth-placed Gillingham are only outside the play-offs on goal difference while Lee Bell’s team, who are fifth, are six points better off with a game in hand.

Clemence had seen Crewe play earlier in the campaign, prior to replacing Neil Harris at Priestfield in November.

He revealed: “Crewe is actually very close to where I had been living for a number of years.

“I attended quite a number of Crewe games earlier on in the season when I started watching League 1 and League 2 football.

“So, I’ve seen quite a lot of them. But they, obviously, made quite a few changes in January.

“They have always had a good footballing tradition, they have produced good players over the years and it’s a good football club.

“But it’s about us on Friday. My focus is on how we beat them.”

Clemence has thought about what would be an acceptable points tally from the Gills’ next two games but, for now, his focus is on getting the better of a Crewe team, who beat Gillingham 2-0 in October.

He said: “You think about these things but, to be honest, my focus has to be on ‘What are Crewe going to do against us and how are we going to beat them?’. That has been our full focus this week.

“Myself and my coaching staff have started to put a game-plan together on the training ground and we’re looking forward to trying to get the three points against Crewe. It’ll be a difficult opponent.

“They have, obviously, had a very good season and play good football - but so do we.

“I expect it to be a very good game. I expect this