Gills need to find a cutting edge to stay in the promotion hunt

"One-nil to the Arsenal" was a regular terrace chant among Gunners supporters during the north London side's top flight title-winning campaigns of 1988-89 and 1990-91 and 1-0 has become a regular scoreline for Gillingham, who are this season's early League Two pacesetters.

The Gills have registered five single-goal successes and are top of the tree despite conceding as many goals as they have scored.

Among their League Two rivals only fourth-bottom Harrogate have scored fewer goals, and Gillingham's low-scoring trait has followed on from last season when their 36-goal tally was comfortably the lowest in the division.

Despite averaging just 0.78 goals per game in the 2022-23 campaign the Kent club finished the season strongly, taking 41 points from their last 23 matches, and finished 12 points clear of the drop zone.

Avoiding the drop was a decent achievement for a side who reached the halfway point on 14 points, and a big part of the resurgence was down to improved attacking play as Gillingham scored 29 of their 36 goals in the second half of the season.

This season Gillingham's goal average stands at 0.71 per game although it is a small sample size and there is every chance it will increase.

The key for Gills boss Neil Harris is to maintain his team's solid defence while finding a way to score more goals, and he has every chance of striking a better balance because he has some excellent attacking players.

Gillingham added extra attacking quality in the transfer window with the signings of striker Macauley Bonne, versatile forward Ashley Nadesan and attacking midfielder Jonny Williams.

Nadesan has been the most effective with three goals in ten appearances but there is more to come from Bonne, who has scored goals regularly in the second and third tiers, and Williams, who bagged ten League Two goals for Swindon last season.

Gillingham's pool of talented attacking players also includes classy forward Tom Nichols, who arrived from Crawley in January, but they will need to play a more adventurous style to get the best out of them.

The Gills' average shots per game this season stands at 9.1 which is the lowest in the division.

To be top of the division with the lowest number of shots is remarkable but Gillingham will need to do a lot more attacking if they are going to remain in the promotion race.

Second-placed Notts County are shaping up to be one of Gillingham's main promotion rivals and they have an opportunity to reach the summit on Friday evening when they take on 18th-placed Salford at the Peninsula Stadium.

Luke Williams' side are bolstered by the return of classy wingback Jodi Jones from international duty with Malta, while Salford welcome back central defender Adrian Mariappa after his stint with Jamaica.

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