Gillingham manager Neil Harris is wary of a backlash when they face promotion-chasing Northampton.

The Gills are up against a Town side who sit second in the League 2 table but were left reeling on Friday after suffering a shock 3-0 defeat at lowly Newport. It was the team’s first defeat in nine.

Northampton’s impressive form had led to their manager Jon Brady picking up the March manager of the month award - pipping Harris to the accolade.

Looking ahead to today's game, Harris said: “I would have thought Jon would be looking for a reaction because they lost 3-0 at Newport, they won’t be happy about that.

“That is the league at this stage, Newport are on level points with us and a team that is maybe looking and building with a bit of freedom compared to Northampton, a team maybe feeling a bit of pressure trying to get into the top three.

“Northampton missed out right at the end of last season. The expectation was to get promoted last year, and this year.

“They are a hard working unit and well organised. The majority of the time they play 4-5-1 and what they have got is a lot of League 2 knowhow, and they have got goals, players like Hoskins and Pinnock, players that make the difference at this level. Hoskins with over 20 goals can be the difference.

“We have to make sure we stop their threats but it’s about us as well and making sure our game management is slightly better than last time out (away from home) at Barrow.”

The Gills have pulled clear of relegation trouble in League 2 thanks to their winning home form but Harris knows they will need to do better away from Priestfield next season if they are to challenge at the top end.

Harris said: “The only thought process for us is to keep amassing points between now and the end of the season to build momentum towards next season and just to be slightly better on the road than we have been.

“It is my job to demand, but I am not getting into the thought process of any negativity whatsoever, we have 33 points from 17 games, if the league started 17 games ago we would be well clear. Let’s appreciate what the group has done.

“Moving forward my demand of the lads is, ‘come on, let’s get more points on the road.

“If we want to get to a top seven side next year we can’t rely on winning games at home.”

The Gills are set to be well backed again for the match at Sixfields after being handed an allocation of 960 tickets.

Home boss Brady hopes a bumper home crowd will help his own team to a result after suffering with a number of injuries recently, picking up another three on Friday.

“We really need the fans right behind us again,” said the Town boss.

“Hopefully we can put a team together that isn’t too disjointed but that depends on the injuries and who is available. We’d like to put round pegs in round holes.

“Gillingham have done really well in the second half of the season, they made some big signings in January and that has really helped them to kick on. We really need the fans’ help.”