Gillingham manager Neil Harris believes it’s a big week ahead for his side beginning with the league clash against Salford City on Saturday.
Neil Harris has this week been talking about the response from his Gillingham players after the manager’s harsh words a fortnight ago after the Newport County defeat and how his side earned another chance to possibly face Premier League Leicester City in the Third Round of the Emirates FA Cup.
“Harsh words and we responded well at Crawley; were we as good at Dagenham? No, but we responded to going a goal behind against the run of play,” the Gills boss told KSN at this week’s briefing,” … and one of the centre forwards scored!”
“I was really pleased for Kash (Scott Kashket), and I was really please for us as a group. There are some times as a manager that you don’t want to be negative – you don’t want to put the fear into the players to express themselves – but sometimes as a “teacher” you need to point out the negatives for them to improve.”
“And that’s what we’re trying to do with the players, and certainly some of the boys who came onto the pitch on Saturday gave a good account of themselves.”
“Just say we have four thousand at the game on Saturday, that’ll be four thousand different opinions – some will pick the same team that I do and some won’t, it’s all about opinion really. But would that four thousand want to take the Gillingham training during the week?”
“A lot probably wouldn’t want to, but there will be a lot who would and that’s arguably the best description of the job that I’m doing at the moment; I’m in a privileged position, I like the industry, and there are days that we really enjoy, but I will say that some days are a lot harder than others at the moment.”
Harris was then asked about the pressure that being in charge of the Club is putting him under as opposed to the pressure that he endured in his playing days.
“Mental health awareness, not just in football, but in society is huge,” he said, “yes, I understand pressure but it’s not just in football, it’s in everyday life. We are more open about it these days as a society now, but in my opinion there’s still a long way to go and we can still do a lot more.”
“Pressure in the game – player or manager? I know I’d sooner be a player as the pressure as a manager is 24/7 and it’s how you deal with that pressure. As a player, you’re simply focused on yourself – you care, you play for a team and you’re either selfish as you do your job as a player or you’re a team player, you care about yourself, and you really care about the team as well and they tend to be the best teams!”
“As a manager and coaching staff, they tend to be completely different…”
“The PFA have done a lot over a period of time to try and relieve that pressure and stand behind the players and offer support, but I really do feel that a lot more can be done and in society as well.”
Salford City make a first every visit to Priestfield on Saturday and Harris knows that his side face another tough test. “We’ve studied the opponents and we’ve got to make sure that we get our tactics and our players right.”
“From the finances that they have they should be a top seven side in my opinion and they have got good ability and we must be wary of that” the manager admitted as he prepares to take his side into three big home games as following Saturday, the Emirates FA Cup replay with Dagenham & Redbridge is live on BBC TV on Thursday meaning that the home League game with Bradford City has been moved back 22 hours to a 1pm kick off on Sunday 11th .
But for this weekend and Salford, the Gills boss is hoping that Ben Reeves will continue his comeback from injury against Salford though Ollie Lee is still a away off being considered and along with injured keeper Glenn Morris is definitely ruled out of the Priestfield Saturday lunchtime showdown.