Gillingham were ‘miles better’ than Morecambe, says Neil Harris

Gillingham manager Neil Harris felt his team were “miles better” than Morecambe in their 2-1 win that returned them to the top of the League Two table.

George Lapslie fired the hosts in front from close range early on, but the visitors equalised two minutes later through leading scorer Michael Mellon.

Connor Mahoney wrapped up the win after 24 minutes with a sensational curling effort that soared into the top corner.

Mellon was later dismissed for a second yellow card and Harris felt his side could have been out of sight by half-time.

“I’m delighted to win the game,” he said. “I thought we were miles better than the opponent.

“I’m really disappointed with the goal we conceded, but other than that the first-half performance was the best in my time at the football club.

“We dominated and we should have been four or five up.

“We worked all week on our attacking play and the chances we created today were clear-cut. How the game only has a one-goal swing is bizarre.

“We scored two really good goals. The first, from a set piece, was something we organised on the training pitch. The second was a moment of magic from Connor.

“With young players in the team, we’ll turn the ball over at times and we’ll make judgement errors.

“We conceded a really sloppy goal today when we’ve had a clean-sheet mentality at the club.

“There were moments where the youngsters could have taken a bit more control today, but experienced players like Shaun Williams and Scott Malone gave us the composure and quality we needed.”

But Derek Adams said Morecambe were “well in” the game.

“If Gillingham are the team who are top of the league at this moment of time, then we don’t have an awful lot to fear. That’s plain and obvious,” he said.

“For large spells of the game, even when we went down to 10 men, we had good opportunities. We didn’t feel that we were under great pressure.

“It was a strange game because we were well in it. We conceded from a set-play, but then Michael scores a great goal and at 1-1 we looked like the team in the ascendancy.

“We had some really good moments in the game. Then we allow their player to come in off the sideline and shoot into the top corner, but even then, it was a game that we still could have got back in to.”

On Mellon’s sending-off, Adams added: “He’s going over the top and trying to have a shot, but he and the defender collide at the same time.

“I’ve spoken to the referee, and I’ve watched it on the video, and it’s not a second yellow card.”