Tranmere Rovers should fear Gillingham backlash as Mark Bonner boosts loom: View | OneFootball

Gillingham have started the season well, despite having many of their key players missing. Now they're coming back, hopes are high at Priestfield.

Gillingham have enjoyed a solid start to the 2024/25 League Two season, but there’s much more to come from the Kent club.

A new era is underway at Priestfield, with new manager Mark Bonner bringing in a host of new signings to address the team’s shortcomings in front of goal last season. And, in the early games played so far this season, it’s fair to say it's been a solid, if unspectacular, start.

The team got off to a flyer against Carlisle United at Priestfield on the opening day of the season, but since then, the Gills have picked up a couple of 1-0 wins – away at Morecambe and at home to Chesterfield – while the other two long awaydays, at Fleetwood and Doncaster, resulted in a goalless draw and a 1-0 defeat, respectively.

It all means Gillingham sit fourth in League Two heading into this weekend, where they’re set to take on Tranmere Rovers at Priestfield.

Injuries have hampered Gillingham’s early team selections

While on paper Gillingham’s season has started well, those good early-season results also came with the knowledge that they were achieved without Bonner having the benefit of all of his key players available.

Injuries have deprived Bonner of midfield anchor Ethan Coleman and strikers Elliott Nevitt and Josh Andrews, while centre halves Conor Masterson and Max Ehmer have been forced to miss game time through injury and suspension, respectively.

Also, the much-heralded return to the club of Gills hero Bradley Dack came with the caveat that the former Blackburn and Sunderland man wasn’t fully match fit on his arrival at Priestfield.

It’s all meant that, while Bonner’s squad list looks like an impressive one, he hasn’t been able to deploy his attacking weapons as he’d like so far this season, while his back line has also been patched up at times, too.

Key players are returning in September

However, things are starting to look up for Bonner and Gillingham. Andrews made a substitute appearance and played a big part in Gillingham’s 1-0 win over Chesterfield, while Nevitt, Dack and Coleman all featured in the club’s EFL Trophy defeat to Peterborough United as they picked up some much-needed minutes.

Bonner didn’t rush his returning players back into action too quickly, and instead opted to give them substitute appearances at Doncaster as they continue to play themselves back to full fitness. And now, as the club prepares for the visit of Tranmere, hopes are high that the Gills will be able to field a much more balanced lineup.

Ehmer is back from suspension, while Dack could potentially return, depending on how his hamstring is feeling after not being risked at Doncaster last weekend. Andrews and former Tranmere striker Nevitt should both be available for selection, too, meaning Bonner has the chance to field a much more physical forward line.

It won’t be the finished article – left winger Aaron Rowe’s hamstring issue has forced him out of action recently, while midfielders Tim Dieng and Robbie McKenzie’s injuries reduce Bonner’s midfield options – but hopes are high that the Gills side that trots out onto the Priestfield turf this weekend will carry more of an attacking threat, be better balanced, and contain more of the players that are expected to form the nucleus of Bonner’s first-choice XI as the season progresses.

And with Bonner on record saying that he wants to see a much more ruthless approach from his side in the final third, Tranmere could potentially find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time if Gillingham's strikers hit the ground running this weekend.