Gillingham manager Neil Harris joked that his pre-season hopes of keeping a lid on expectations weren’t helped by Saturday’s fantastic win.
Robbie McKenzie’s late goal clinched a 1-0 victory for the Gills against a Stockport side that lost last season’s play-off final and went into the new campaign as a team many are tipping to win the title.
Harris has tried to keep a level of expectation of what his team can achieve this season after a fine end to last season and some good summer business on the transfer market.
Following Saturday’s win, he said: “That’s not going to dampen expectation levels is it?!
“That’s what I tried to do in the week, to match perspective against expectation, but for 38 minutes (in the first half) we were excellent, we absolutely dominated the game with and without the ball.
That was so much fun. We are truly massive in our hearts. Proud of Neil and the boys. #SleepingGiant @TheGillsFC
“We lacked a little bit in the final third, that penetration was missing, then we knew Stockport would come out second half and be better and they are such a clever team, Dave (Challinor, the manager) is such a good coach that they work out how to create overloads, they have so many good players that can affect a game, and they did.
“First half our shape dominated and second half for 20 minutes their shape dominated. I decided to change to a back five (from 4-2-3-1), just to give us a little bit more support, but rather than sit in and do it, we put on another centre-forward as well to try and stretch the game and be an attacking threat and ultimately it made us better.”
Stockport almost grabbed a late goal themselves when Kyle Knoyle hit the crossbar but it was a free-kick from Cheye Alexander on 86 minutes that
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