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Salford’s veteran striker Matt Smith is confident in his side’s playoff hopes ahead of Saturday’s game against Gillingham despite their poor form.

The Ammies go into this away fixture without a league win in four matches and will be desperate to take three points from their relegation threatened opponents. The Gills are currently second bottom after a poor start to life in League Two, with consecutive relegations looking a real possibility. Despite this, Smith stressed the importance of not underestimating the hosts: “Gillingham is another test for us. it will be a tough game; there’s no easy games and it can be potential banana skins wherever the team is in the table.

“If you’re not focused and don’t apply yourself in the right way you get turned over so it’s down to us to prepare right, concentrate and get ourselves in the best shape possible. We all know we’re going up against a top manager so it will be a tough test for us.”

Salford currently sit in ninth, but are just a win behind seventh place Swindon Town, who have 31 points. The 33-year-old reaffirmed that a playoff spot remains the goal: “There’s zero reason to show any sign of panic. We’re a game away from the playoffs so we’re in touching distance and it’s important we remain that way throughout the course of the season.

“The back end of last season we were playing a little bit of catch up and always felt we needed a couple of games to try and get ourselves in. We fell short on a couple of occasions that we did have the one game to bounce in, so it’s important that we remain in and amongst the pack.

Image credit: Salford City Twitter
Matt Smith against Carlisle, November 19th.

“It’s important that we focus on ourselves, control the controllables and I feel confident we will be in the right place.”

The forward scored his first goal of the season in the last league outing against Carlisle and will be looking to pick up where he left off on Saturday. This is the first ever meeting between the sides and with pressure beginning to mount on manager Neil Wood, a strong performance and win feels almost non-negotiable.

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