Gillingham manager Gareth Ainsworth returns to his former club Shrewsbury Town this Saturday in League 2 clash

Pantomime season is around the corner and Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth expects to be the villain of the piece this weekend at Shrewsbury.

Ainsworth ditched the Shrews for Gillingham towards the end of last season, swapping a team that was then bottom of League 1 with a chance to make the most of the new opportunities at Priestfield under the Galinsons.

While the Gills had recently been taken over by ambitious new American owners, Ainsworth left a club that had seen their own hopes of fresh investment from overseas fall through.

Shrewsbury were eventually relegated last season, finishing bottom, and have continued to find wins hard to come by in the lower division. They head into the weekend three places off the foot of the League 2 table.

“I’m expecting a little bit of stick,” admitted the Gills boss when looking ahead to the weekend clash.

“I enjoyed my time there. I’m very respectful of the fans that got right behind us and we had some great results.

“It’s a game that I want to win, as is every single game in this league. It’ll be nice to see some old faces up there and hopefully we can come away with some points.

“The Shrewsbury game will be great. It would be great to go back and see so many friendly faces.

“We had some good times there and obviously I left with probably a quick exit.

“People didn’t expect it, but there were things that I don’t want to say, but they were the reasons I came here and it was all done correctly. I’ve got good memories of Shrewsbury.

“I think we were the only team to beat Birmingham and Wrexham last year in the same season. So, some real nice memories and some great players up there.”

The Gills boss hasn’t been back in the dugout since his heart operation which he had in early