ALTHOUGH we are still anything but out of the woods in terms of the relegation battle, Saturday's win over Burnley certainly did wonders for our league position.

But we must not let the fact that we are 18th in the table lure us into a false sense of security as we are still only two points away from the drop zone.

However, we overtook the league's two sinking ships in Crewe and Watford with our win, and if we can take three more points when Crewe visit Priestfield on Saturday then our survival will be almost secured.

Stan Ternent and Ronnie Jepson have really done a magnificent job. When they arrived in December, we looked dead and buried, but they have turned our fortunes around.

They have got the players believing they can win games, and some of the lads look to be different players than they were before Stan and Ronnie arrived.

The prime example is Darius Henderson. Darius was loaned out to Swindon earlier in the season, and when a fee was agreed to make that move permanent, few Gills fans would have been upset.

But the deal fell through at the last minute and Darius has since become a real star in our battle to beat the drop. He is a strong, hard-working competitor and, as he proved with his brilliant match-winner on Saturday, he can chip in with his fair share of goals for the cause.

I just hope that Paul Scally can convince Stan to stay with us after his initial six-month contract expires - if he's given some financial backing and a full pre-season with the boys, who knows what we could do next season?

The win on Saturday was fairly comfortable with our visitors putting in a mediocre performance and never really looking like scoring, even if their late corner did have me thinking back to our daylight robbery against their neighbours Preston seven days earlier!

Crewe are without a win since New Year's Day but we cannot afford to underestimate them when they make their trip south on Saturday.

Under Dario Gradi the Alex have always been a good footballing side, but their current run of form suggests we can get revenge for the 4-1 humiliation we suffered at Gresty Road back in November.

Hopefully Priestfield will be rocking again and this time next week we will have edged even closer to completing the great escape.

* If you're not going to the Priestfield, you can keep up to date with all the action on kmfm 'Sportswatch' this Saturday from 2pm.

Hear regular live updates from the ground with kmfm sports editor Simon Watts.

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