Gillingham resume their League 2 campaign tonight (Tuesday) with a trip to Grimsby Town.

It’s another chance for the Gills to shake off their unwanted goal scoring problem, one that stretches to a club-record 630 minutes without hitting the back of the net.

They missed out on a weekend trip to Crawley after the death of the Queen but have another chance to put things right at Grimsby, buoyed by a brilliant rearguard performance last time out against Swindon Town, taking a point after playing over 80 minutes with 10 men.

Manager Neil Harris said: “We needed a galvanising performance to give us some belief and get us up and running and show me some signs of what I think I know my team is capable of.

“For nine minutes we were excellent and then we had the disappointment, debacle, poor decision, naivety, of a silly red card and you wonder what you are going to get from the group, it is human nature, the reaction from the players was everything you would hope for as a manager. The desire to not get beat was phenomenal.

“Me and my staff are looking to improve the squad to get the results that we believe are on the horizon, but the players have to believe and once they cross the white line, it is down to the players to execute them.”

The manager added: “We are so close to coming together as a group, supporters included.”

Grimsby Town haven’t lost in the league since an opening day 2-0 defeat against Leyton Orient. They head into the midweek fixture with back-to-back wins in League 2, sitting ninth in the current standings.

The Mariners were promoted from the National League last season after an extra-time play-off final win over Solihull Moors at the London Stadium.

Gillingham start the day 21st in the table, with one win from their first seven league fixtures.

Jake Turner was due to take over in goal against Crawley, as loanee Glenn Morris wasn’t available to face his parent club. It’s likely that Morris will now continue with his place between the sticks.

Elsewhere Cheye Alexander will be hoping for a return to the squad after Haji Mnoga was sent off early on after taking on the right-back duties against Swindon Town, earning him a one-game ban.

Robbie McKenzie will also be vying for the vacant full-back role, however, hoping to be involved for the first time since he return to the club on transfer deadline day.

Midfielders Dom Jefferies and Olly Lee have been been attempting to shake off injuries.

On those injuries, Harris said: “Dom is flitting in and out, that’s the best way of describing it. (He played) 45 minutes at Charlton, where he was a little bit rusty it is fair to say and he certainly felt that, but we thought it was too good an opportunity not to include him for some minutes.

“Just when we think he is getting there he has a step back again, that is just the nature of a quad injury, a ball-striking injury, we have to be careful.”

Lee has been suffering with tendonitis.

Harris said: “Unfortunately, pre season, hard grounds, age - in the nicest possible sense - we have to be careful. He completed the majority of pre-season and he did have an illness where he missed a game a few weeks a back. It is a combination of a few things at the moment but he shouldn’t be long hopefully.”