Hartlepool United is 'a huge game' for new Gillingham signing

Following Rochdale’s surprise win over Bradford City in midweek, Hartlepool dropped into the bottom two of the League Two table ahead of a crunch clash with basement club Gillingham.

The Gills are at risk of back-to-back relegations following their drop from League One last season - with their profligacy in front of goal a key factor in their continued slide having scored just seven goals heading into the weekend fixture with Hartlepool.

But having been the subject of a successful takeover bid in December from American businessmen Brad Galinson, the Gills are looking to rectify that having brought in Crawley Town ace Nichols.

Nichols was a surprise absentee when Keith Curle’s side went and sealed a 2-0 win over Crawley at the Broadfield Stadium with the club negotiating his exit behind the scenes.

And that exit came as Crawley allowed Nichols to move on to a relegation rival at the Priestfield.

Nichols has not featured since November but admits he is raring to go for the visit of Hartlepool.

“I can’t wait. It’s a huge game for the club. We need to get a result,” said Nichols.

“It’s been a long time coming for me playing, personally. I haven’t been this excited to play in a long time. It’s always nice to start at home in what is a big game down at the bottom of the table.

“It’s a massive period but that's what we play for. Obviously you’d rather be fighting at the other end of the table, but they’re huge games.

“Hopefully we can build off the back of that performance against Leicester because it was a great performance from the lads. We pushed them all the way and we need to take that into a league game now.”

Nichols added on his move: “I wouldn’t have come here [if we weren’t confident of turning things around].

“They’re good players, they just need a little bit of help in the final third and the results will start changing.

“I think with the new ownership, if we get a couple of good early results, it will snowball and we’ll really start picking up some results.”