Gillingham's weekend game against Cheltenham Town becomes a different kind of test now after a management switch.
A run of three straight defeats for Cheltenham and a 7-1 loss at Grimsby led to former Gills boss Michael Flynn getting the sack and the club turning to a legendary former boss.
Steve Cotterill is back managing the team - 23 years after leaving his hometown club, who he led to three promotions and an FA Trophy victory.
He took over a team bottom of League 2 but got an instant response as the Robins beat Fleetwood Town 2-0 last weekend.
The Gills have lost back-to-back games in the league and their manager is at home recovering from heart surgery. They could have done without a rejuvenated Cheltenham, a game that now has a different kind of feel.
"It'll be a good test for us," said Gills' assistant boss Richard Dobson.
"They have a new manager and a win last weekend. I expect their players to run hard for him.
"It's a different proposition to the one that we probably would have had two weeks ago.
"We've come across him a few times. He's intense. He's a winner. He's going to want to win at the weekend. He's going to want to get on a roll there and kick-start the season.
"We know we're in for a difficult test and a different test."
Dobson will be confident of turning his side's mini slump around, however.
He said: "We're at home. We're looking forward to the challenge, as we always do. It'll be great to get outside and play in front of Priestfield again.
"You either win or you learn. I was always interested to see what we were going to be like after a defeat. It was the one thing that we hadn't experienced so far."
The Gills had gone 21 games unbeaten - 18 under Ainsworth and Dobson before the losses to Harrogate Town and MK Dons in successive league matches.
He added: "I wanted to see why in the past there's been a slump. Is there a reason behind that? Do the groups suddenly split if results go against them? I haven't seen any of that whatsoever.
"I see a determined group. A group that wants to be successful together and are all pulling in the same direction. I've had no issues with anything I've seen since.
League 2 table
"Sometimes there are fine margins. I know last weekend we go 3-0 down [at MK Dons]. It looks like a disaster.
"You take the emotion out of it. I think we're actually on top in every statistic against MK Dons but because of the story of the game and the way the scoring went, it looks like a disaster and then a bit of a comeback.
"First half, obviously, we didn't play at the intensity that we wanted to. Second half was far better. Our stats that we used reflected that. There was a big swing in the second half.
"We had more shots than them. We had greater possession. We had greater percentage of possession. The bottom line is put the ball in the back of the net and they did it more times than us.
"Football is a human game and I think we numerise it a little bit too much for my liking. I'm really happy with the human side that I'm seeing this week."