Neil Harris slammed his players after Gillingham’s dire showing in a 3-0 defeat at Tranmere Rovers.

The Gills were undone by Elliott Nevitt in the first half, and wing-backs Ethan Bristow and Josh Dacres-Cogley in the second, and Harris was in no mood to make any excuses for a below-par performance.

“Firstly, on behalf of the group, I have to apologise to the loyal fans that travelled,” he said. “It’s not a position I like to be in but that performance wasn’t acceptable.

“I can accept us not playing well or being undone by a really good bit of play but we were out-fought and out-competed, and that shouldn’t happen for any of my teams.

“I have to assess the players individually and collectively but we came to a team that weren’t overly-competitive in their first two games and they’ve turned us over.

“It’s not acceptable and I’ll do my damnedest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The goals were just horrific, it’s an embarrassment for a manager to stand and watch his players concede goals like we did. It’s not acceptable and they have to improve quickly or they won’t play.

“I’m interested in what the players say after a game, and they were very quiet so I’m disappointed I didn’t see a few more opinions from them. I’ve asked them to watch the game back and judge for themselves if they think it was acceptable for this football club to play in that manner, and I think it’ll be a reality check for some of them.”