It’s a big few final weeks of the season for Neil Harris as he looks to learn about his Gillingham squad.
The midweek defeat of League Two champions elect that mathematically secured Gillingham’s Football League place was lauded and celebrated all round Priestfield.
But the power failure that delayed things with just ten minutes left had an effect on the home dressing room as Neil Harris told KSN whilst looking ahead to the weekend’s trip to face Bradford City.
“There was a lot of anger in our dressing room when we had to take the players off,” the manager admitted. “We were 2-0 up against the League leaders; the group had been desperate to actually get over the safety line and mathematically secure safety – to achieve that and it is an achievement in the second half of the season – they’ve been so desperate.”
“We’ve been talking about driving standards and discipline and hard work to get us there and to put so much into it. We ran as far as anyone in the Country on Saturday against Stockport, and I’d named an unchanged side for Tuesday… We’d play for eighty-one minutes and done all the hard work and we were just about to start enjoying ourselves and the lights went out!”
“There was disappointment and anger that they might not have come back on – I think what a few thousand people forgot was that if the last nine minutes hadn’t been played, we still would have been nine points clear, but with four games to go and have Leyton Orient coming back with a full side probably having won the League by then, and you do start feeling the worst!”
“So, to get back out was important for us – the anti-climax was a frustration for us but now a couple of days later, the lads really appreciate what they’ve achieved!”
“We’ll still be looking at the League table as we want to see what’s happening at the top and the bottom,” and one of those sides above that Harris will see are Saturday’s opponents Bradford City – the only team to take three points away from Priestfield since Christmas.
Harris confirmed that only the long terms injury victims – Messrs Reeves, Walker and Kashkett – will be the only ones missing at the weekend along with Aidan O’Brien whose loan period has effectively been ended by a hamstring injury.
“Aidan won’t play for us again this season as his hamstring injury will keep him out,” Harris said.
“He’s going to stay with us as we’re closer to his home than Shrewsbury and we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the summer.”
The manager was then asked about the contract offers for next season and he suggested that the decisions of some have already been made either by the Club or the player himself, and he added, “We’ve a quite a few out of contract in the summer, but of those we signed in January, only Glenn Morris is out of contract as we took over his contract from Crawley that expires in the summer and of course Aidan and Conor Masterson on loan.”
“We’re keeping a check on the players that we’re looking at for next season and looking at their form across different parts of the season. I have tried to avoid looking at the table for various reasons at various times as you don’t want to add extra pressure on yourself let alone your group… I have to admit that the last few weeks have been a bit calmer.”
“Been looking back too on the old stats about how far adrift we were; how we built gaps over certain periods of time – we’ve been relentless and haven’t stopped!”
The manager then paid tribute to departing COO Paul Fisher who left the club this week. “He’s a class guy in the building and out of the building – absolute class act” Harris said.
“The guy’s humility is incredible; he had a brilliant manner with me when I needed him. He was so supportive and a big help with transforming the football club for the better – helped taking us to a better level playing field, I really can’t praise him highly enough!”
“He helped me keep a level head in the dark times and was a calming influence – somebody who was a good bloke; he never fessed to be a football expert and he was really good for me and going to miss him!”