Michael Appleton: Shrewsbury Town boss says return of Gareth Ainsworth can inspire home crowd

Ainsworth, who won five of his 22 games in charge of Shrewsbury, expects to be treated like a pantomime villain by the home fans and Appleton says anything that can fire the crowd up should help the players.

“I think it will. That will be part of the situation – I hope that is the case,” he added.

“If you look at the last three home games they’ve all been quite pressured.

“Saturday’s no different but there’s that extra little bit from the supporters’ point of view and if we get three points it will probably feel like more.

“The three points are so big for us. Gillingham are in a much healthier place but I don’t want the players to be focussing on anything else but just sticking to the game plan and being good enough to execute what we want.

“I’m in fighting mode at the moment and it’s important to get as many points as we can and try to pull away to a safer area.”