Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth believes his side are a top-three outfit in League Two with a fully-fit squad

Manager Gareth Ainsworth believes his Gillingham team are the real deal this season.

Ainsworth’s side started last season well before tailing off - but he admits even during the good times they weren’t quite at it.

Ainsworth has recently overseen a run of three straight wins and a six-game unbeaten spell that ended at York.

A goalless draw against Newport on Saturday didn’t do much to excite the fans but it was a response of sorts, and was their fourth clean sheet from nine games.

Gillingham now head to Rotherham United this Saturday hoping to build on that.

Ainsworth said: “We’re priding ourselves on this - we’re building a team here on a brilliant defence.

“Somebody asked me recently about last year’s unbeaten run and I said, ‘If I’m honest, I thought we got away with a few’. I really do. I thought we got away with a few games.

“This season, I fully think we are where we deserve to be. We can’t say that we’ve got away with any game.

“We’ve deserved to win games. We’ve deserved to lose games and we’ve had four draws now and every one of them has been really nip and tuck, but against some good sides as well.

“I think the teams that are probably looking at surviving in the league and the lower teams in the league are going to come here [to Priestfield] and shut up shop and go, ‘Right, let’s stop Gillingham doing what they do’ because everyone’s now looking at this going, ‘Wow, you play and you’re good at home’.

“I wanted Priestfield to be this place and now they’re fearing it and that’s the first step. Let’s get the second step and start scoring some goals here.

“The likes of Liam Gordon and Omar Beckles coming in, I think Omar’s been super. I thought he was outstanding again [last Saturday] and his standards are so high