Norwich loan forward Tom Dickson-Peters and QPR striker Charlie Kelman getting minutes as Gillingham wait on experienced players to return from injury
Published: 05:00, 17 February 2022
Neil Harris is enjoying coaching some up and coming strikers - but is keen to get some of his experienced men back soon.
Norwich loan forward Tom Dickson-Peters was handed his first league start on Saturday at Morecambe while QPR striker Charlie Kelman is also seeing plenty of action.
Harris has been without his more experienced forward players such as Mustapha Carayol and Ben Reeves, both injured, while Danny Lloyd and Alex MacDonald are out for the season.
While he waits, Harris is happy to give youth a chance.
Commenting on Dickson-Peters’ weekend debut, he said: “I thought, a young man, starting one of his first games in professional football, I think he showed moments of quality and what he is about. I like his movement and his goalscoring ability.
“It was a tough ask for him as it was a disciplined performance that he had to show up there.
“Hopefully he has got a big future in the game for Norwich, but also for us in the short term.
"He has been good to coach in training, he wants to learn, him and Charlie, young strikers and when you lose someone of the experience and quality of Mustapha Carayol, Danny Lloyd, Alex MacDonald and Ben Reeves, you are then going with younger players and sometimes you need their adrenaline and their energy and hope that it will click for them and we see goals.”
Harris will hope to have Carayol and Reeves back available soon, ideally for this weekend’s game against Plymouth.
“It’s really key to get them back,” said the manager.
“We have got what we have got at the moment, and it is up to me to coach them the best possible way with a formation and a style of play that gets us results.
“Getting Mustapha and Ben back fit, even for some involvement in the next couple of games, would be heaven for us, to just have that bit of experience, bit of quality, at the top-end of the pitch and it gives us the opportunity to look at different shapes as well.”
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Luke Cawdell