Time to kick on - Johnson

READY FOR ACTION . . . Amari Morgan-Smith could be handed a place in tomorrow’s starting X1 should Jonathan Forte, who is rated 50-50, fails a late fitness test.

SPIRITS in the Athletic camp may be high thanks to a run of three straight victories, but manager Lee Johnson will be keeping his players on their toes.

Going into tomorrow’s SportsDirect.com Park clash against Gillingham, Athletic have surged into the top half of the Sky Bet League One table.

Johnson is keen to keep things in perspective: “You just want to keep playing when you’re on a good run, but it can change very quickly. Good form and confidence can soon become complacency, and that’s something I struggled with early in my playing career. We haven’t done anything yet. We’ve kept three clean sheets and won three games, but given our poor first couple of games all we’ve done is get ourselves into a position where we can go again.”

Athletic will be favourites to sink inconsistent Gillingham and take a third straight league win for the first time since April 2013.

“It’s realistic to get beaten by anybody in League One, certainly this year, and we can beat anyone.

“We just need to know the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, but more importantly we have to have the lads in good spirits, good form and good fitness.”

Five-goal striker Jonathan Forte is still rated as 50-50 to make tomorrow’s clash, while defender Genseric Kusunga isn’t due to return from international duty with Angola until today and won’t be available until Tuesday.