Crewe Alex v Gillingham 25-26 Preview - If at first you don't succeed, buy again!

If you are looking for well backed teams who've underperformed compared to expectations over the last 2-3 seasons, Gillingham would be right at the top of the list. Every year under owner Brad Gallison, they seem to throw heaps of money at trying to get out of League Two. And they are no further forward now than they have been at any stage of the last few seasons. Still, they are a dangerous team who could easily come to the Alex and come away with some points. Here is my preview of their long trip north:

If at first you don't succeed, buy again!

To illustrate my point, Gillingham have been going big on strikers since dropping into L2 to try and solve their chronic goal scoring woes. In 22-23, they signed Scott Kashket, Mikael Mandron, Tom Nichols, Ollie Hawkins. The team scored 36 goals that season. In 23-24, there was Ashley Nadesan, Macauley Bonne, Josh Andrews and Josh Walker. They scored 46 goals.

In 24-25, they signed Elliott Nevitt, Marcus Wyllie,Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Jacob Wakeling. They scored 41 goals. This season they went even bigger. Undisclosed fees for Seb Palmer-Houlden in the summer and a rumoured £250k on Ronan Hale in January, alongside veteran Sam Vokes show they are spending serious money to try and solve their goalscoring woes. It's worked to a certain extent as their output has improved, but not to the point where it's led to success.

Personally, I don't think their issue is that they've signed bad strikers. Or even the wrong strikers. I think they have just never signed good enough creators. Their leading creators in the last 3 seasons have managed 6, 4 and 5 respectively. This season, their leading creator stands at 5 and it's LB Max Clark. With players like Garath McCleary, Bradley Dack, Armani Little, Aaron Rowe and Remeao Hutton in the squad, that's really poor.

Ghost of Newport Past

Ok, it's not Christmas anymore, but I will shudder if I see Cameron Antwi's name on the Gills team sheet for this game given the fact he's haunted the Alex in his last 2 visits to Gresty Road. He scored just 1 goal last season and it was on his visit to Gresty Road. This season, he's scored just 3 league goals and 1 of them was at Gresty Road back in December.

He was close to getting another as well as he basically forced Newport's first goal by firing the shot that deflected off James Connolly for an own goal. Gillingham might have bigger and more notable names in their line up, but Antwi's name is the one I'm circling.

Flat Track Bullies

On the surface, Gillingham's away record sitting at 4-5-5 looks pretty solid. But it's misleading. Their 4 wins have come against Oldham(16th), Newport(23rd), Bristol Rovers(21st) and Harrogate(24th). 3 of their 5 draws have been at Accrington, Tranmere and Shrewsbury. They've lost to MK Dons, Grimsby, Swindon and Notts County, all sides pushing for the play-offs. They will be a tough opponent, but there is no reason the Alex can't be targeting a result here.

The big one zero

The Alex made it 9 unbeaten at home with a gritty win against Colchester 2 weeks ago. They now have the opportunity to bring that figure into double digits. A win here would also put them just 2 points off their entire total at home last season, where they managed just 33 points from a possible 69. They've improved at Gresty Road this season and this is another test of how far they have progressed.

Back to back

It feels a minute since the Alex have had a back to back Saturday-Tuesday pair of home games. And that's because it has been. They had just one last season back in January, where they played Accrington and Wimbledon. And produced to insipid performances, 1 goal and just 1 point.

This season when their home games have been one after another, they've managed to string together good results. Accrington and Crawley, Grimsby and Shrewsbury, all back to back wins. Their 3 in a row last month against Cheltenham, Harrogate and Barrow netted them 7 and it should have been 9. They have been good at getting results from home games when they've been bunched together. If they can net 4-6 points from these next 2....

Don't Fall Flat

8 points from their last 4 games has increased the possibility of the Alex making an unlikely play-off run. I just hope that after working so hard to get themselves back into contention in the last few weeks that they don't fall flat in this game or the one on Tuesday. Last season group, from January onwards, constantly came up short in big games, especially at home, as their promotion bid fell apart. This group feels different, so hopefully can keep the wave of optimism going.

Ref Watch

Martin Coy

Coy is back for his 2nd Alex home game this season, after doing the Grimsby game back in October. He was fine then from memory, let's hope he is the same again in this one.

2025-26 Record: 20 games(10 League One, 6 League Two, 2 National League, 2 FA Cup), 62 yellows, 3 reds

Last Game: York City 2-1 Forest Green Rovers, National League, 7th February 2026, 5 yellows

Crewe Alex Record: 8-1-4, 19 yellows

Injuries/Absences

Crewe Alex

Tezgel, Sanders and Lankester are all out until the end of the month at least, but are we finally about to see Omar Bogle make a return? After weeks of being told he would be in contention?

Gillingham

Jonny Williams, Conor Masterson, Shad Ogie and Jonny Smith all missed last week's home game with Tranmere, but most of their bigger names are fit.

Team

With a free week to help rest the walking wounded in the squad, you'd hope that Lee Bell now has more flexibility in who to select for his starting XI and isn't burdened by thinking about managing minutes.

Assuming this is the case, I'd expect to see their strongest starting XI be named. At the back, that would be Lawlor in goal and Hutchinson, Demetriou, Pond and Billington in defence from left to right.

In midfield, Lunt and Powell start again with Holicek tucked in behind March in attack. On the wings I would expect Agius and O'Reilly to go again unsurprisingly.

As for the bench, it should hopefully be a little bit healthier if Bogle is able to return.

Score Prediction

I'm going to keep the positive waves going by predicting a win here. Gillingham are a tough team and they are only 6 points behind the Alex in the table, but the Alex have done generally well since the turn of the year performance and results wise. So, I'm hoping it'll be another similar display here.

Crewe Alexandra 2-1 Gillingham