Gills are back

Neil Harris: “We won’t give Colchester any space”

Gillingham manager Neil Harris has emphasised the importance of starting the game on the front foot when they face Colchester United in Sky Bet League Two tomorrow.

The Gills secured their first win of the calendar year last weekend against Hartlepool United, but still sit at the bottom of the league and two points from safety.

“We have to force the issue”, said Harris.

“We have to make sure we’re aggressive in our approach, we’re on the front foot, but we give no quarter, or no inch of the pitch, and we won’t, to Colchester.”

Under the helm of new owner Brad Galinson, Kent’s only EFL club have made seven signings, most recently Leyton Orient midfielder Ethan Coleman.

Coleman, 22, signs from the National League club having been recalled from his loan spell at Bromley.

Joining him to sign on the dotted line this window was Glenn Morris, Oli Hawkins, Timothee Dieng, Tom Nichols, George Lapslie and Jayden Clarke.

Goalkeeper Glenn Morris, 39, made his move permanent with the Gills having spent the first half of the season on loan at ME7. 

Gillingham’s struggles have been predominantly in attack this season, scoring the fewest goals (9) of any club in the top four divisions in England, but Morris believes that defensive stability could be the key to survival this campaign: “Especially in a team that’s not been scoring so many goals, you have to stay in the game.

“That might change, we might score loads of goals in the second half of the season, we don’t know.

“We defend as a team, we keep it nil-nil for as long as possible, and then you build from there.

“When you’re down the wrong end of the table, you don’t want to be giving away leads early on in the game and having to chase it.

“The first goal is massive, which we saw on Saturday, we get the first goal and it was a different game.

That first goal was scored by Tom Nichols, signed from Crawley Town this month, who opened his account for the Gills with a close-range finish, before assisting Dom Jeffereies as they went on to win 2-0 against Hartlepool.

Nichols is optimistic about Gillingham’s attack for the remainder of the season, and hopes to bring new life to the frontline: “There’s good players at this club, and they just haven’t been firing.

“I’ve obviously been training with them for a few weeks now.

“There’s sort of different profiles, Mika (Mikael Mandron now signed for Motherwell) is a big target man, Scott Kashket is a really lively, quick forward.

“It’s a good balance, and I’m hoping to add to that.

“Hopefully I can be the missing piece to link it all together.

New signing from Mansfield Town, Timothee Dieng, is expected to start alongside Nichols in the attack against Colchester.

The Essex side sit in 19th place, 9 points ahead of the Gills, but Neil Harris’ side have two games in hand and know that a win could take them level on points with Rochdale in 20th, and a step closer to safety.