Neil Harris lays into Gillingham players for ‘unacceptable’ display at Tranmere

Posted Sunday, August 14, 2022 by PA

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

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.”

Meanwhile, Rovers boss Mickey Mellon was delighted that his players reached the standard expected of them after defeats in their first two league games.

Although Nevitt was named man of the match, Mellon is hoping some friendly rivalry between his other two scorers will pay dividends out wide throughout the season.

“With our wing-backs scoring it’s a bit like the old duelling banjos,” he said. “A bit of ‘you play one tune and I’ll play it quicker than you’, let’s get the competition going between the two of them and long may it continue.

“We’ve got two very good wing-backs here so let’s get it on, let’s have them competing against each other like the duelling banjos, so they’re saying ‘I can play louder, faster, better’ and keep driving performances out of each other. If we do that we’ll have two fantastic wing-backs at the club.

“I’m looking forward with this group of players and building on performances that we’ve already had and trying to build that consistency. We’ll keep doing that, we have to keep it going so it’s about finding the consistency and competitiveness. We’ve told them that’s what required. If we can keep the consistency and the spirit then our ability will take care of itself.

“Today we showed it for 90-odd minutes so well done to the players for that. They deserve tons of credit, every pat on the back that will come their way, but I’ll be back at them on Monday because that’s the standard we need at this football club.

“I was pleased with the performance, a clean sheet and three goals. It was a good all-round performance but it’s only one game.”