John Coleman is calling for his team to be ruthless tomorrow night as they take on relegation rivals Rochdale at the Wham Stadium.
There are six games left of the season with the 17th placed Reds needing to put space between themselves and the bottom four in a tightly packed league with just six points separating Dale in 23rd place and Gillingham in 13th.
"The games are going to be dour between now and the end of the season - no one will set out for them to be that way, and it will happen at every level, but nerves will take over," said Coleman.
"The teams who are ruthless, who take their chances and have some luck along the way, they will get out of the situation.
"You can overcome nerves by playing good football, scoring goals and trying to put the luck in your favour by playing in the other team's half.
"The prize is the same as last year - League One football - competing with the bigger and better teams once again on meagre resources. Getting promoted was hard but staying up is hard too.
"Four big teams will go down this season and it's up to us to make sure we are not one of them."
Coleman admits he has been forced into making changes to his squad in search of a winning formula as the Reds have only won two of their 16 league games since the turn of the year.
"I always analyse my own role before the players and look at what I could do better," said the Reds boss.
"I have always been steady with my team, not making too many changes and substitutions but, for the last three months, I don't think I have kept the same team every game.
"It's not like me, if I am not careful they will call me 'Tinkerman' and that's not me at all! But it's been a necessity as I have been trying to find the winning formula and when we are not winning, trying different things."