Neil Harris is going into the new SKYBet League Two season this weekend in a much better place than he was twelve months ago as Gillingham begin the campaign as one of the fancied teams in the division over the coming months.
“The first game of any season is always exciting more so for the fan base and the players,” Harris admitted.
”They’re excited for the first game of the season and want to be in the team obviously. The fans are always excited for the start, but for a manager it’s the unknown if I’m honest!”
“We think we’re ready, we hope that we are, but until five o’clock we don’t know. What I do know is that our preparations have been meticulous for Stockport.”
“I think people will think that this is going to be a big game as it’s between the two sides who got the most points in the second half of the season.”
“Stockport, for me, are probably the best squad in the League. so the pressure is on them straight away, will say that they should be promoted this year, whilst for us I don’t think the expectation is that we end up in that top three or top seven.”
“I think we are a lot of people’s dark horses to be in there as we did so well in the second half of last season, we’re still looking to add to our squad and there are still improvements to be made within the group and on the pitch.”
“So, we’re excited for this year and don’t think that there’s an expectation within the building or pressure within the building to be a promotion winning team, which is also a nice position to be in as we’ll just attack every game as we did in the second half of the last one.”
“There’s a lot that I can’t control going into Saturday. but what I can is how we want to play and how we approach the game with the work we’ve done off the pitch and, on the pitch, to get us ready to kick off on Saturday at Stockport.”
The Gills head north definitely without striker Ollie Hawkins and with question marks over a couple of unnamed others leaving Harris knowing that his side have got a really tough start!
“I thought Stockport were excellent last year. Dave Challinor by his own admission took a couple of months to get his feet under the table and find a system and way to play, but in the second half of the season they got more points than us!” the Gills boss added ruefully.
“That’s how good they were! I think they’ll be a really good team and it should be a really good game.”
“Stockport first game of the season what to expect? They won’t have a clue what to expect from us. What to expect from them? We have a rough idea, but until we get onto the pitch, we don’t know what for sure.”