Gillingham head for Crawley Town this weekend with manager Neil Harris calling for his squad to continue to show the fighting spirits they showed in last week’s draw with Swindon Town.

Looking back on the events last Saturday, the Gills boss confirmed he hadn’t changed his views, but had some sympathy for Haji Mnoga’s early red card – but reiterated his warning to his young defender.

Harris told us, “I stick to the word I used at the time – H was very naïve! If I look at the referee, the second foul, there’s nothing else that he could have done – whether it’s the first minute or the last minute, it’s a late tackle! The first one though I didn’t feel that the referee had to book the boy.”

“I said to the fourth official that I accept the booking, but if he’s booked him for that, every single trip, every kick the ball away, everything, he has to book a player in the game… and he didn’t! Twice their players kicked the ball away to stop us taking things and there was a trip on Shaun Williams on the halfway line where he gave a foul but no card!”

“I said to the referee afterwards that I was fine with the red card – the two yellows – but he had to be consistent in his decision making. Jonny Williams threw the ball away first half and didn’t get booked but then in the second half tripped Ben Reeves on the edge of the box and does get booked – he should have been off the pitch!”

“That’s the frustration but ultimately it doesn’t hide the fact that Hadj was a silly lad and naïve and he has to learn from that.”

Harris was quizzed about his side’s lack of goals and what goes through a striker’s mind during barren times and he said, “repetition was important for me and that I got in the right positions and again and again, and had the habit of hitting the back of the net either in five a side, in training – 11v11 – or finishing drills in training. Repetition was really key for me.”

“It depends on your mind set and what you judge yourself on. When you’re a young lad you judge yourself on scoring goals – you turn up on a Sunday morning wanting to score goals. You score four goals and get a goal bonus off your Dad!” Harris laughed, “and be happy as Larry! If we lost five four, I didn’t care as I scored four goals.”

“But as you get older you learn that it’s more important that the team wins, and you want to score in there. And as you get even older it’s more important that the team wins and if you haven’t scored but played well that’s more important which us what happened last week.”

“So, it’s important at the moment that as a team we try and pick up the results,” he went on, “but we’re not picking up the results probably because we’re not scoring enough goals. So, we’ve got to get the balance between the lads working well without the ball – which they are – that they’re playing well and putting the ball in the net as well. Mentally with the players, we’ve got to work that if they’re not scoring, we’re sure that you’re contributing. It’s a way of keeping confidence in the attacking group!”

“I’d just like to thank everyone who is going to be travelling to Crawley,” Harris said as the club confirmed that in excess of one thousand fans are making the trip to Sussex. “We don’t take you for granted but it does amaze me sometimes – things like that makes you proud of the football club!”

Harris confirmed that Dom Jeffries and Olly Lee are both unlikely to be involved at Crawley. Meanwhile Robbie McKenzie is being considered for a place in the squad whilst young keeper Taite Holtham will travel as Jake Turner’s cover as Glenn Morris is ineligible against his parent club.