Port Vale, Forest Green Rovers, Bristol Rovers and Exeter City show the way forward for Gillingham in League 2

Gillingham manager Neil Harris is ready to adopt the recipe for success in League 2.

There’s little room for niceties in the EFL’s bottom tier and Harris has watched closely how pace and power have worked to good effect.

“We have to be realistic to compete in this division,” said Harris.

“We have to look at the teams who have gone up, Bristol Rovers, Exeter City and Forest Green Rovers - they have all got footballing ability but physically they can compete, that is either with pace or power.

“The four teams in the play-offs, Mansfield, Northampton [were] two huge, physical teams who can pass the ball as well, then Port Vale beat Swindon [in the semi-final] albeit on penalties, but again big and physical.

“They beat a more technical side. Swindon play a lot of football and maybe lack a bit of physicality.

“The league doesn’t change hugely but I have been impressed by the quality in it. Every year the Premier League gets better and this year is as good as ever, the knock-on effect is that it gets better as you go down the levels.

“We saw that a lot in League 1, the top 10 sides with their budgets - the money they have is ridiculous - and that knocks on to League 2.

“The four play-off teams in League 2 and those who got promoted could compete well in League 1, as did we in the bottom half. We would have been right at the top of the bottom half of League 1 (on form under Harris).”

Harris watched a lot of League 2 football during his year off from managing, especially more locally to him, having been a regular at Colchester United and getting to see Crawley Town on numerous occasions.

The League 2 season finished after the Gills did which enabled him to catch a few other games at the end of the 2021/22 campaign, including the