Gillingham boss Neil Harris bemoans ‘lack of quality’ after Colchester defeat

Neil Harris slammed a “massive lack of quality” as his Gillingham side slumped to the bottom of the Sky Bet League Two table following a 1-0 home defeat against fellow strugglers Colchester.

Junior Tchamadeu’s well-taken 26th-minute strike settled the outcome at Priestfield as the visitors won on the road for the first time in the league this season.

Harris’ side came close to levelling late on but Elkan Baggott’s header flashed wide, stretching the Gills’ winless league run to 10 matches – the last seven of which they have not scored in.

“There was nothing in the game,” said Gills boss Harris. “There was a massive lack of quality. Tension, nerves, composure – it lacked all of it. The players are better than that.

“They’re a great group of lads, a nice, good group of lads but in terms of winning football matches, horrific.

“To concede like that is a joke and I can’t be any more disappointed, as you can tell.

“I pick the team, I pick from the players in the building who are fit and that’s all I can do until January.”

The former Millwall boss does not have long to pick his players up, with trips to Sutton and high-flying Stevenage to come either side of the new year.

“We play again on Thursday so I’ll have to look and take stock of that and look at some players who played well individually – I thought Dom Jefferies was excellent – and then look at some players who didn’t do so well,” he added.

“Did Colchester deserve to win the game? No. Did we? Probably not. It was a scrappy game.”

Harris’ opposite number Matt Bloomfield was delighted to come away with a victory which lifted his side out of the relegation zone.

The visitors held firm through 17 minutes of added time and the United boss felt a tactical switch proved crucial in the basement battle.

“I’m really, really pleased to get the three points,” Bloomfield said. “I felt like it was the right time to switch formation and we felt like today was the right time to do it.

“From wing-back, we really felt like we wanted Junior Tchamadeu and Al-Amin Kazeem to carry the baton for us in attacking areas.

“They’ve got so much attacking prowess as young full-backs and we felt like we could get the best out of them.

“Everyone was trying to build the game up to be a six-pointer but for me, it wasn’t.

“We’ve had a really good couple of weeks and we’ve put in a lot of work into playing three at the back.

“I’m not sure what part of Junior’s ankle, foot or calf it came off but it went in.”