Gillingham face the second part of their Cumbrian challenge this weekend and a near seven hundred mile round trip to face Barrow in Cumbria for the first time since April 1972.
Last weekend’s 1-0 over Carlisle United was hailed by many as the finest so far for Neil Harris’ rebuilt side, and it impressed the boss too…
“It was a strong performance,” the Gills boss told us. “I thought we, without having complete control of the football match with the football on the floor and passing the ball round the back, for a League Two game of football against a top side who have been consistent all season, I thought it was a really good performance.
“We physically dominated the game, the majority of the game was played in the Carlisle half and we got into some really good areas. We’d been concentrating this week on possession with the football rather than not and so it was a big step forward for us as a learning group. And a lot of that came after Saturday when we got into some really good areas making good passes and good decisions and then just maybe when we got into the final positions was sadly missing.
But we stuck at it and what we did really well late in the game, the last twenty minutes in particular, was that we carried the momentum. We got down the sides of Carlisle, we got in behind them and forced the set play and we kept the ball in there at times and that’s progress for us. Ultimately, we wore them down and it was really refreshing to hear Paul Simpson (the Carlisle boss) say that we were the better team deserved to win the game and that they would have escaped with a point if they’d got there, and no one in the ground could have disagreed with that!”
“I have to say that he is a class bloke and a football man who’s really honest who’s done brilliantly this year. Just dropped out of the top three on goal difference, but his comments do show just how far we have some as a group. We played Salford here and dominated for fifty five minutes but were three nil down by sixty two minutes and to be as string as we were in Saturday – I think Carlisle had one shot in target in the 96th minute, I am proud of that and proud of my teams turnaround and let’s hope we will continue it.”
“My job is now to make sure the players are at it every day,” Harris went on. “To man manage individuals and set demands, we’re all really enjoying our jobs and coming to work; the players are really receptive and aggressive to want to learn. While we’re in this position we have to keep driving it – I don’t fear us stepping off the gas! I don’t fear anyone thinking that we’re safe, there are still a lot of points to play for and we have to expect the unexpected.
“Teams are capable of going to win three or four in a row and build their own momentum again because we’ve done it. My position to the players is clear, you’ve set your standards which you stepped off against Walsall and we came short; we don’t step off again!”
“When you rebuild a squad in January you’re hoping for combinations and chemistry and you do hope that it gels together and that’s where everyone has to praise the group in that it’s come together really well.
“There have been some who have surprised me, some players have really stepped up and risen again or the lads who have come in have performed as well as I could have hoped, perhaps I didn’t expect do many to come in and do so well, we have had some here who didn’t hit levels in the first half of the season who have in the second half and that sometimes happen when you bring in quality players.”
Harris concluded by confirming that he had a near full squad available for the long trip north. He confirmed that Lewis Walker is finally back training on grass with the squad but the unfortunate Scott Kashkett is still struggling.