Gillingham 2 Leyton Orient 1: Manager Neil Harris’ reaction after EFL Trophy victory

It was a pleasing night for Gillingham manager Neil Harris on Tuesday.

His team came from behind to beat Leyton Orient 2-1 in the EFL Trophy at Priestfield.

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Harris said: “We took the competition seriously, picked a really strong side and I wanted players to gain confidence as well as minutes and it was a really good performance, a really pleasing night.

“Minutes played for people was key and it’s not something I am going to do continually, changing the team, but it was our ninth game in four weeks and it is important we keep people fresh and protect people, especially with the injuries we’ve got at the moment.

“Minutes were good and it was nice to get some of the B team lads on. I have been very clear that they are not ready but it’s important at times that we just keep them involved in the group, they do a lot of training around the first team, we can make sure they get exposure as well, from that sense it was important.

“At times we were really good, first half we could have been infront had we played slightly better, twice in the first 15 minutes we had an overload and we didn’t quite get the end product.

“We are playing against a really good side that walked our league (last season) and they then found a bit of rhythm.”

Orient went ahead in the first half when George Moncur’s shot went in off goalkeeper Glenn Morris after hitting the post.

The Gills played better after the restart and red cards for Orient’s Shaq Forde and Brandon Cooper left Harris’ men up against a team of nine.

Already in the ascendancy, the Gills punished the O’s with senior players like Jonny Williams and Connor Mahoney excelling.

Williams was only denied by a super save but when Mahoney was fouled in the