The Hat-Trick: Will Gareth Ainsworth shuffle the pack for Accrington?

Now Gareth Ainsworth's men head north to the Wham Stadium to face Accrington Stanley on Matchday 11. It's another tricky away assignment, but can they continue their free-scoring ways with another big away win?

As we get set for Saturday's game, here's a hat-trick of burning questions we hope to get answered during the 90 minutes this weekend...

James Brophy has done an admirable job of filling in at left wing-back, but the general consensus is that his best performances this season have come as one of our two No. 10s behind a lead striker.

With Conor McManus going away for an extended international break with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s, Brophy was the natural pick to drop into the left-sided role, but now, with McManus back in the fold and potentially ready to return, will Ainsworth tweak a winning team to bring him back in?

There's an old adage about not changing a winning team. But if you can take a winning team and make it better, that surely goes out of the window. Bringing McManus back into the side at left wing-back and moving Brophy back into his advanced role, alongside Ronan Hale, would give Gillingham its optimal personnel in both positions.

But will Ainsworth make that choice?

Another potential team change could involve the team's lead striker. Lamin Sillah had arguably his best performance in a Gills shirt last time out at Rotherham. But the continued emergence of Tom Eaves as a talismanic line-leading striker means Ainsworth has his first major selection headache of the season.

To drop Sillah after his performance last time out would seem incredibly harsh, but Eaves is doing everything you'd want from a number nine when he comes on.

The likely move this weekend would be for Ainsworth to continue with Sillah for the first 45-60 minutes, then bring on Eaves to close out the game. But Ainsworth has a well-earned reputation of loving his big number nines, and they don't come much bigger than Eaves.

Starting Eaves would mark a clear choice by the manager, but it's also worth considering which of the pair would be the more effective gamechanger coming off the bench. In that regard, Eaves may be the better bet as the finisher, rather than the starter.

It's a selection dilemma Ainsworth will have grappled with over the last few days.

It's no coincidence that Gillingham's most goal-laden performances in the league this season have come on the road, when facing sides that are naturally more attacking in their approach.

With two 4-1 away wins in the books already, Ainsworth's side have shown the division that they have the firepower to go away from home and win emphatically.

Now they head to an Accrington side that has conceded twice at home in three of their six home games so far this season. With plenty of attacking options available, Ainsworth's side have the firepower to produce another big performance. Will we see another this weekend?

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