Gillingham defender Elkan Baggott expects their team to be in for a physical battle this weekend.

The Ipswich loanee hasn’t started a league game since heading to Indonesia on international duty but is ready to be involved again when League 2 leaders Stevenage come to Gillingham on Saturday.

Baggott said: “Stevenage will be a really tough game, they do the dirty and nitty-gritty side of the game well, they are just powerhouses so we will have to stand up to that.

“It will be a really tough game on Saturday, one we will prepare as well as we can for.

“We are looking forward to it. It is a chance to test ourselves against the best in the league at the moment.

“We know what is coming, they are just going to throw everything at us, they will be big and physical and we just have to stand up to it.”

Gillingham have been steadily improving and go into Saturday’s game five unbeaten in all competitions. They’ve lost just once in their last six League 2 games.

“Morale is high,” Baggott said, after their EFL Trophy draw against Colchester. “It’s probably the highest it has been all season at this moment.

“We are quite happy but not satisfied as we still want to be winning games. Every game that we are not beaten is a slight momentum shifter and if we can’t win a game we make sure we don’t get beat.

“Tuesday was another win (on penalties), another step in the right direction, we are slowly progressing.”

Baggott has yet to win his starting shirt back after heading out on international duty with Indonesia. He had started all 12 of Gills’ opening games in all competitions before his country came calling.

He’s now made 12 appearances for Indonesia and is a massive star for the southeast Asian country. He has 1.2million followers on Instagram.

He said: “I love it, I love playing for my country, it is good to play with different players, it builds a different experience, it is great.”

Domestically he is also on a learning curve. He had a loan spell in the National League with King’s Lynn during the 2020/21 season, having made his first senior appearance for parent club Ipswich against the Gills in the EFL Trophy before that. He made two league appearances for the Suffolk club last season.

Now it’s full on and he said: “I'm taking every game as it comes, learning the good and bad. The main thing is reflecting after the games and being honest with myself, saying, ‘I could have been better here and there’ and that’s how I will learn.”

But how does he mark himself? “I won’t give a number!” he said. “I had a bit of a tough start to the season and then found my form, just before I went away I had a tough game against Mansfield (Gills lost 2-0) but came back feeling good.

"Hopefully I can break my way back into the starting team for the league.”