Gillingham players have to believe in themselves more if they are to turn their wretched start to the season around.

Boss Neil Harris is confident his men can start scoring goals and winning matches - but says that is down to confidence and belief. With 10 games gone, the Gills have shown little of that so far.

• More: Young midfielder back with Gills after agreeing contract

Gillingham moved up two places to 20th in League 2 last weekend after a goalless draw at fellow strugglers Hartlepool but, with just one win and only two goals scored, it’s been the start only the most pessimistic would have predicted.

Harris felt the players got themselves into the right areas at Hartlepool during the first half, but lacked end product.

“What was missing is confidence and belief,” he said.

“I spoke about it at half-time. If we were a team who had won three in a row, I think we would have been two or three up.

“We got into so many good areas [and] put together some good passes. Movement was good at times and the amount of times we got in and around the corner of their penalty area, but we just didn’t have that moment to unlock it.

“We had four or five balls into the box that someone from somewhere just has to grab it. [They’ve] got to produce, whether it’s a moment of luck, set-play [or a] quality finish, just to get us running. We did control the game first half but it’s that final end product.

“I do see these players consistently in training put the ball in the net, put it into good areas, it just comes to that confidence and belief, bravery as well. We have not scored enough goals but the players don’t get questioned by me, they need to have the freedom to express themselves. Ultimately when you do that, you find the confidence to create and score goals.

“It has to come from us as a group, I would put myself in there as well, making sure that the players get the right messages, the right training schedule and we are putting the right sessions on.

“It is belief, and confidence, but there is only so much you can do on the training pitch. When it comes to three o’clock on a Saturday, whatever players I put over the white line and whatever formation I play, then it is down to them.

“It is important they know I support them in their decisions, but it is ultimately down to them when they go on the pitch.”

Harris was glad to have left Hartlepool with something. The Gills host Sutton United this Saturday, a mid-table team looking to establish themselves as a Football League club after winning the National League in 2021.

“We take the point and move on because that is what we have got,” Harris said. “Am I happy with where we are at and what we have produced? No.

“I didn’t go there to be happy with a 0-0 away from home against a team below us in the division, I am not, there is no point kidding people that I am. But sometimes you have to take what is there and not conceding was key for us to give us a foothold.”