Gills boss reacts following the 1-0 win over Crawley at ME7.
Neil Harris spoke to the media following Gills 1-0 win over Crawley at MEMS Priestfield Stadium.
Shaun Williams scored the winning goal shortly after the interval, with the hosts commanding proceedings for the majority of the game thereafter.
Here's what he had to say.
Confidence in the team...
I thought the difference today was the last five minutes when it was only 1-0. There wasn't any nervousness in the stadium. I felt confident in my team, and I think that the fans felt relatively confident, and the players certainly did. That just comes with belief, points, results and good players.
Changes at half-time...
The gap between the centre-forwards and centre-halves was too big. For whatever reason, we weren't at the races for that 20-minute period.
Tactically I had to adjust, not because I didn't change personnel, but I had to adjust and ask the players to be slightly more aggressive in their approach. We did it, and we did it extremely well. Like I said, second half, there was only one team in it.
The Deadline Day signings...
Aiden [O'Brien] I just felt with his creativity, his spark, his energy, his cleverness, and his movement, and his touch; I thought that would keep us on the front foot. That was the thinking for bringing him on and leaving him up the pitch when he's good in the nine or ten position, but he's as effective, if not more effective, in the wide areas.
I was really pleased with the impact of the lads when they came on.
Tristan [Abrahams] is in the Lewis Walker category. He's played a lot more football than Lewis Walker, but Tristan is young. He's a player that we brought in for us to have a look at between now and the end of the season and for him to see us and have an opportunity to play back in the league again.
Injury updates...
[On Oli Hawkins] He got an elbow in the ribs. Just as he was about to attack the ball, Dom Telford was very clever. Centre-forward on centre-forward and just sort of leant into him and affected the ribs, so we hope he's okay this week.
[Tom Nichols]- I didn't see him go down as we were about to bring Lapo [George Lapslie] on anyway. It was only when the staff said to me that Tom's gone down, but fortunately, by then, Gary [Hemens] was going onto the pitch, so it got to me quite quickly that it was cramp.
Stuey had an injection during the week, so wasn't involved.
[On Scott Kashket]- He's got a grade two abductor, so he's going to be missing until at least the start of March.