After one Yorkshire side dented Gillingham’s recent recovery on Tuesday night, Neil Harris and his players head to the White Rose county this weekend to face another “six-pointer” in their climb up the League Two table.

Tuesday’s defeat to Bradford City came as a wake up call to some fans that the Club still has work to do in their survival battle, making Saturday’s first ever visit to Harrogate Town even more important.

And when you add to everything else the fact that the Yorkshire side sit a place lower than the Gills in 21st place – two points behind and just five in front of the relegation trap door after a run of one win in their last twelve.

The Gills head north in a good run of form after taking nineteen points from their last nine games, but Tuesday’s 2-0 home reverse to Bradford City dented the recent optimism that all things are becoming rosy on the banks of the Medway.

“No-ones taking anything for granted in the building,” Harris reiterated to KSN this week.

“It (Tuesday) was a little reminder to all of us that we’ve still got a little way to go… but how far have we come as well? The negative is that we lost the game and we need to get a few more wins on board, but look how far away we were six or seven weeks ago – some seven points behind Rochdale!”

“It’s going to happen – peaks and troughs through the rest of the season – we’ll lose more games between now and the end of the season, but we’re going to win games too.”

“It’s my job to win as many games as we can, as quickly as possible, to try and negate that threat of relegation and take that pressure away from us.”

“But we’ve no given right to do it – we have to earn that right and so far all we’ve done is to earn the right to win games, and we now have to make sure that we keep doing the same thing!”

“I was angry over the Christmas period with the games that we lost in narrow games – Colchester we shouldn’t have lost; Sutton we let in a last minute goal; Stevenage we shouldn’t have lost – I was angry after those three games, not because the way we played, it was more the mindset of the players and what I wasn’t seeing from them, which is why we went and got new players!”

“I was disappointed after Tuesday night’s game because of the manner of the goals that we let in – I don’t want to lose games like that!”

“I want to force teams to have to create against us or hurt us with “worldies” and really beat the door down against us and put us on the back foot, a bit like Swindon did against us and broke us down in the end and fair play to them!”

“If it’s a disappointment then it’s a different one as I felt that we competed against a top four side – I felt that we competed with them enough to get at least a point out of the game, and the frustration was in the second half where as in the previous four home games, we’ve got stronger and stronger as the game’s gone into the second half attacking the Rainham End, but because of a poor second goal conceded, it put us on the back foot a little bit.

“Sometimes it is good for me to remind the players of what I expect from them.”

“There has been a change in myself back to the standards that I want to set and the demands I want from my group and we didn’t hit those demands on Tuesday.”

“It’s not about sweeping them under the carpet, it’s about reminding the players that this is the level we work at again now – “come on we need to do better! But well done for the last six weeks as you’ve been mega for me!””

Harris takes the Gills north as they head to Wetherby Road for the first time in the club’s history – something that excites even the Gills boss.

“I can’t wait,” he admitted. “Meet new people, see the set up, see the changing room, experience the atmosphere – I’m really looking forward to it, but that’s at all levels of football.”

“There are some grounds that you love going to and playing at and have success at and you love going there as well!”

Harris then touched on the team news and his main concerns remain over Tim Dieng and Alex MacDonald who both missed the Bradford defeat.

Dieng is still suffering from concussion and may not be free to play in Yorkshire, and MacDonald has been unwell and will be assessed before the squad leave Kent.

The manager added that if missing at the weekend, he hoped that one or both would be available for the long Tuesday night trip to Stockport County.