Gillingham will be looking to halt their dreadful run of form when they welcome Shrewsbury Town to Priestfield Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The hosts lost yet again at the weekend despite an admirable display at the league leaders, whilst the visitors' FA Cup hangover continued after they suffered a loss themselves.
Match preview
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Despite all the doom and gloom at Gillingham heading into their fixture on Saturday, few could have predicted that they would push top-of-the-table Wigan Athletic all the way at the DW Stadium.
Heading into the game on the back of a 14-game winless spell, which has seen manager Steve Evans leave by mutual consent and Steve Lovell take on the role on a caretaker basis, the Gills were expected to lose heavily.
After falling 2-0 behind inside the opening quarter of the game, this prediction looked to become reality, but an excellent start to the second half led to Ben Reeves and Stuart O'Keefe unexpectedly pulling Gillingham level.
However, despite their admirable display, Will Keane netted late on to inflict a 3-2 defeat on Lovell and his side, which coupled with Doncaster Rovers' win, saw them fall to the foot of the League One table.
With 10 points separating Tuesday's hosts from Fleetwood Town outside of the relegation places already, Lovell and the future permanent manager face a hugely difficult task to keep Gillingham in the third tier, but should Lovell be able to bring the positives out of their efforts at the weekend, hope could well be on the horizon if they can pick up a positive result in midweek.
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Meanwhile, Shrewsbury's 1-0 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday was another example of Tuesday's visitors failing to take their chances in front of goal.
The failure to net in that game, despite attempting 21 shots on their opponents' goal, mean it is now just two goals scored across their last five fixtures in all competitions.
One of those two goals was Daniel Udoh's incredible opener in the FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield against Liverpool, with Salop recording a goalless draw at Crewe Alexandra and then losing to Bolton on Saturday in the two weeks that have followed that cup tie.
Prior to the Liverpool game, Steve Cotterill's side had picked up 10 points from a possible 12 in their four League One games immediately before it, but the setbacks over the past couple of weeks have left Shrewsbury in 18th place in the table.
Three places and as many points currently separate the visitors from Morecambe inside the relegation places, but with both AFC Wimbledon and Fleetwood in action as well in midweek, they could find themselves dropping two places unless they can pick up a result.
However, a lowly tally of six points being recorded from the 39 on offer from their 13 away games so far this season mean that Shrewsbury face a difficult task on Tuesday despite the struggles of their opponents, and unless it can be improved over the coming months, their poor away form could see them dragged deeper into the relegation battle.
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Team News
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Robbie McKenzie, O'Keefe and Reeves all passed late fitness tests to feature for Gillingham on Saturday, but whilst the former two started, the latter was only fit enough for an appearance from the bench, before being substituted due to another injury.
The central midfielder will therefore need to be assessed ahead of Tuesday's game, but Daniel Phillips returns to the squad following a two-game suspension.
Charlie Kelman could earn a start in place of Mustapha Carayol, after he replaced the Gambian at half time before playing his part in an impressive second-half display at the weekend.
As for the visitors, Cotterill has named an unchanged starting lineup for their last six matches.
Were he to consider any changes due to the busy fixture schedule, Tyrese Fornah would be hoping to make his debut following his loan move from Nottingham Forest.
Udoh and Ryan Bowman should still lead the line though, with the duo possessing 13 League One goals between them this season.
Gillingham possible starting lineup:
Dahlberg; Jackson, Tucker, Ehmer, McKenzie; Lee; Lloyd, O'Keefe, Dempsey, Kelman; Oliver
Shrewsbury Town possible starting lineup:
Marosi; Pennington, Ebanks-Landell, Nurse; Bennett, Vela, Davis, Leahy, Ogbeta; Bowman, Udoh
We say: Gillingham 1-1 Shrewsbury Town
If Gillingham can replicate their second-half display at Wigan on Saturday in this game then they will be confident of picking up a result against Shrewsbury.
The visitors have been poor on their travels this season, so despite them coming up against a side on a dreadful run of form and rooted to the bottom of the table, it is difficult to see them winning here, so a draw seems a likely outcome.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Shrewsbury Town win with a probability of 47.77%. A draw had a probability of 28.7% and a win for Gillingham had a probability of 23.55%.
The most likely scoreline for a Shrewsbury Town win was 0-1 with a probability of 15.63%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.14%) and 1-2 (8.3%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.8%), while for a Gillingham win it was 1-0 (9.87%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 12.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a draw in this match.
