Neil Harris takes his Gillingham side to Fratton Park this weekend knowing that a return with the three points to Priestfield on Saturday evening will potentially go a long way to keeping the Gills in League One.

The manager did though admit one thing to us at the week’s media briefing at Priestfield, “I would rather be on the pitch as a player one hundred percent!” 

He went on, “As a manager I can control formations, I can control subs – can’t control referees still and I can’t control individual performance. As a player, I could control my performance, but I knew, as a leader, I could control people around me on the pitch, so I’d much rather be out there on the pitch at Fratton Park on Saturday in the firing line, with my players, trying to control it.”

“I’m not going to say that Portsmouth is a side with nothing to play for as under the Cowleys they’ll be driven twenty-four seven because that’s their nature – they’re infectious and they drive you.”

“We’re going up against a Portsmouth side that had a lot to play for… if they were at the bottom of the League as Fleetwood were here on Monday – they came with a nervousness like ourselves and came not to get beaten.”

“We know that Portsmouth will try and win the game against us – they don’t have to win the game, but in front of fifteen thousand people, they will be expected to win the game!”

“Fratton Park is a great place to play – a great atmosphere, a brilliant place to play and a great place to manage. It’s a great football theatre but also a fan base that expects and demands, but it’ll be six years for them in League One next year, which if they’re honest is probably unacceptable for Portsmouth Football Club.”

“They’ll be expected to beat us because of the expectation on them but what a great atmosphere for us to go and express ourselves in our own way on Saturday!”

“It’s hard not to look beyond Saturday – I’m a football guy, I love football, I love stats, I love being one step ahead of everybody else which is why I’m a manager.”

“Of course, I look at a win here and a draw there, but all the time I am in this building I make sure that my players are ready for Saturday and what happens after that… the permutations of what happens Saturday and our result and what happens with Morecambe and what happens at Fleetwood AFC Wimbledon!”

“The spin off of that on Tuesday (when Fleetwood host Sheffield Wednesday) could be season defining… all I can do is to control Saturday and what we do on the pitch. After that everyone else’s results and Tuesday’s results, I can control that so I can’t look past Fratton Park on Saturday.”

There are also doubts against skipper Stuart O’Keefe after he missed the Easter Monday game and against Robbie McKenzie who hobbled off the Priestfield pitch.