Gillingham head to Ipswich Town on Saturday with a real sense of belief that Neil Harris could well guide them to League One safety.

Having come into Priestfield on Monday morning, the former Millwall and Cardiff City manager had little time to prepare for his first game in charge, but oversaw the first win in over three months as The Gills beat relegation rivals Crewe Alexandra 1-0.

With that win under their belts, Gillingham head to Suffolk hoping to avenge the 4-0 loss at home last month, the last that Steve Evans took as manager before being sacked the following day.

A lot has changed in that past month, Steve Lovell has come and gone as interim manager, Jamie Cumming, Kyle Dempsey, John Akinde and Rhys Bennett have all left the club, whilst Pontus Dahlberg, Conor Masterson and Ben Thompson have come in, whilst Charlie Kelman is back after falling out of favour under Evans.

Saturday is the first chance Gillingham fans will get to see Thompson in a Gills shirt having signed on Monday, but just too late to feature against Crewe. He’s expected to come straight into the side with both Danny Lloyd and Mustapha Carayol facing a race against time to be fit to face Ipswich having come off on Tuesday night with knocks.

Aaron Chapman is excpected to keep his place in the starting eleven as Harris seems set to keep faith with the keeper that kept a clean sheet on Tuesday and once again an expected 5-3-2 formation is likely to take to the field at Portman Road.

Striker Vadaine Oliver is back in contention after coming off the bench to replace Carayol just before half time on Tuesday night and he will be hoping to have done enough to have impressed Harris in training over the past few days.

Stuart O’Keefe has been handed the captain’s armband for the remainder of the season and is now naturally one of the first names on the Gillingham teamsheet.

With Ipswich Town still having one eye on the League One play-off places and Gillingham still eight points off safety, both teams have a massive incentive to try to win the game.

At this stage of the season, securing a point does little for Gillingham’s chances of being in League One next season and most pundits believe they will need another nine or ten wins in their remaining seventeen games.

Come 5pm on Saturday, Gillingham fans that have travelled to Suffolk, and there are expected to be around 500 of them, will know whether the Harris effect is very real, or it’s time to start thinking about League Two football come August.