EHMER AIMS TO GET SAFE QUICK
CENTRE-BACK Max Ehmer wants no repeat of the finalday anxiety he suffered with Gillingham back in 2017.
The relegation-threatened Gills will wrap up their season at home to table-toppers Rotherham and the German-born defender is still haunted by memories of five years ago when, needing to equal Port Vale’s result, Ehmer and his team-mates drew 0-0 at Northampton.
A nervous wait followed before news filtered through that Vale had also been held to a goalless stalemate against Fleetwood.
The Kent club went into this weekend only in the drop zone on goal difference having wiped out a ten-point gap since Neil Harris took over as manager at the end of January.
On his hopes of avoiding an anxious April 30, Ehmer said: “That game at Northampton was a nerve-wracking day.
“Most professional footballers will tell you it’s not something you want to be part of, but we are confident we can stay up now and we certainly want to be safe before the final day.”
For that to happen, the Priestfield outfit might need to demonstrate they can defeat some of the division’s leading lights.
Before yesterday’s home clash with Sheffield Wednesday, the team had not beaten a team in the top half of the table, but five of their last seven contests pit them against sides who fall into that category.
Ehmer, nevertheless, believes the team have shown progress on that front under Harris.
“We’ve been putting in some good performances,” he said. “Arguably the best was Ipswich away. We ended up losing 1-0 but we could have got three points on another day.”
On the impact of ex-Millwall and Cardiff chief Harris, Ehmer added: “He’s really detailed and organised in everything that he does with our shape and the way he wants us to play. You can tell he’s worked at a higher level and he’s a pleasure to work for.”
Adding potency, meanwhile, to a team that had, before this weekend, not managed more than two goals in any of their past 55 games could prove a key factor.
Ehmer has netted in every season of his career, aside from his first in 2010-11, but had yet to get off the mark before the Owls clash.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work on attacking phases and creating more chances for our strikers but, as centre-backs, we’ve got to contribute our share,” he admitted. “I’ve had a couple of chances this season and not put them away.
“I always want to score from a selfish point of view but, more importantly, I need to score to help the team get a result and, when I go up for a set-piece, I’ve got to stay active because you never know when the ball will drop to you.”
Milestone
Ehmer is edging toward a significant personal milestone, too, with Tuesday’s game at Charlton representing his 293rd appearance for the Gills.
It means he has a great chance before the end of the season to become only the 15th player in the club’s history, and the first since Nicky Southall in 2007, to reach 300 games.
After an initial six-year spell with the club, Ehmer returned last summer having spent one season at Bristol Rovers, who were relegated from the division after he was sidelined for the last two months of the campaign with a shoulder injury.
On the appearance landmark, he confessed: “It would be massive. I haven’t been at the club for an extremely long time, so I’ve played quite a lot of games in a shortish period. It is becoming harder for players to get to 300 games for one club.”