Gillingham boss ready for a tougher League 2 with Stockport, Salford, Mansfield, Bradford, MK Dons and Wrexham among the challengers to Neil Harris’ team

Gillingham are back training, the fixtures are out and boss Neil Harris is preparing for a much tougher season in League 2 this time around.

The Gills are no longer the poor relations in the league but they aren’t the only team with resources and ambition.

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“It will be more difficult [this season],” Harris predicted.

“Stockport, Salford, Mansfield, Bradford, MK Dons, Wrexham, they are well set at the levels, financially. They are the clubs we are chasing still.

“You then look at Morecambe and Accrington, they might not be exciting clubs in the football world, but they have got a lot of knowhow in (managers) John Coleman and Dereck Adams on how to get out of this division. You don’t know what you are going to get from those sides.

“Wrexham won the National League but Notts County finished with 107 points. They are a good team!

“It’s going to be a lot tougher than last year and that’s why there has to be a little bit of reality for us in building, from what’s outside, on what is achievable, but we’re going to give ourselves the best opportunity to be as competitive as we possibly can.”

This summer Gillingham are carefully adding quality to a squad that was drastically improved in January, competing for players with a better chance of getting them, but Harris admits it’s still a challenge.

He said: “We are still missing out on players. We are not cherry-picking the best players, we are not like Wrexham in the National League last year who could do that, even Stockport to a degree and Mansfield last summer did that and to a degree are still doing that above us but we’re competitive now. That’s all I can ask.

“It was a really tough couple of years for the football club before Brad and