Gillingham 2 Crystal Palace 3: Gills boss Neil Harris reacts to pre-season friendly encounter at Priestfield

Manager Neil Harris was a happy man after seeing his Gillingham side take on Crystal Palace at Priestfield.

The Gills conceded twice early on before getting back into the match with two goals of their own through Olly Lee. Premier League Palace won it 3-2 with a penalty from Wilfried Zaha.

It was a pre-season that had atmosphere in the stands and some quality play on the pitch, not always from the South London side. While Zaha was a class-act, Olly Lee knocked a goal in for the Gills with a heel while livewire forward Jordan Green once again showed he has no fear.

“Palace were the better team,” Harris said. “They are a Premier League team. The biggest thing for me, I am a happy man afterwards because lessons were learned from Saturday. I wasn’t happy after that game (against Portsmouth) with some of the aspects.

“The shape against a fantastic group of players was very good, we limited them to not many chances, I could pick bones in the goals (against). The first one was excellent play by a terrific footballer (Zaha). Second one I was a little disappointed with, I thought we could have done better in various areas, but when you are 2-0 down against a good side we had to show a bit of character second half.

“I thought we played on the front foot, we moved the ball really well, we showed a lot of attributes with and without the ball that will set us in good stead this season and we scored a couple of goals ourselves, not 25-30 yarders but good moves to get us into those positions, really pleased.

“It looks like we have come through unscathed, which is probably the most important thing, we had no Ben Reeves or Stuart O’Keefe (through injury), it was really important we came through and I’m delighted with the six days we have