Newport County will look to get onto the same level of points as Gillingham this weekend when the two clash at Rodney Parade with the South Wales outfit down in 14th with two fewer wins on the board.
Just three points are keeping these two apart from one another right now, mainly down to the face the gIlls have won two more games and lost the same amount of fixtures as Newport down in League Two. On the other hand, Newport have a significantly better goals scored record with 46 on the board compared to the Gills' 31.
In fact, stunningly, despite only being outside of the playoff spots by goals difference, Gillingham have netted the fewest goals across the whole of League Two and only a handful of teams in the Football League have actually scored fewer than them.
Notts County defeated Newport last time out, as Will Evans was back amongst the goals, despite this being a meaningless penalty in added time.
It has still been a positive 2024 so far for them, and even in a 4-2 loss at Rodney Parade to Manchester United, the South Wales side did manage to get back to draw level at 2-2 at one stage. The club have also managed to beat Eastleigh in the FA Cup third round replay earlier in January, and further league wins over rivals Wrexham, Swindon Town, Walsall and Doncaster have rocketed Newport far away from the relegation zone and within touching distance of the top half of the table.
As for Gillingham, their three-point gap on Newport also means they are only outside of the playoff spots on goals difference. As alluded to, this mainly comes down to the fact the club have scored only 31 goals and the fewest in the division, and they are now behind Notts County in seventh in the goals difference column by 14 goals.