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Gillingham manager Neil Harris has set his side a new points total to aim for.
Safety looks assured for the Gills but Harris isn’t celebrating yet - even after a win over Carlisle United on Saturday left them 12 points above the drop zone with eight games left to play.
Harris asked his men to beat the 40-point total after the January reset and they’ve quickly passed that. Next up is smashing the 50 point mark.
The manager was asked if he could forget looking over his shoulder after pulling clear and replied: “Not until it is mathematically safe.
“We are in a lot healthier position, I am a lot more content and relaxed about it, I think it would be some going for teams below to catch up but then my demands on the players are slightly different now. Maybe I am not looking so much at Rochdale and Hartlepool (in the bottom two), maybe I am looking more at Wimbledon, Newport, Grimsby and Tranmere, and saying ‘come on, let’s challenge those teams around us now.’
“Where we are in the league, how high up the league can we get? Getting over 40 points was a massive hurdle and we’re up to 44 now. We have to get over 50.
“People might say we we have eight games left, we only need six points, we have a real tough run of fixtures but 50 is the next target for me, not about what is below and what is infront, let’s get to 50 points as quick as we can.”
The Gills face mid-table sides Barrow and Doncaster in their next two before a run of games against teams chasing promotion. Victory over a Carlisle team sitting third before the match will have given the team the confidence that they can beat anyone.
Harris’ men have climbed up to 16th in the League 2 table - a stunning turnaround having started 2023 sitting bottom of the table. Nine wins from their last 15 has transformed their season. Mid-table obscurity will be a welcome relief after real fears of dropping into non-league.
Gills chairman Brad Galinson has said: “We will celebrate safety as and when it is mathematically confirmed, not a second before.”
Harris reiterated that message, saying: “We still have work to do. I am fully aware of it and I am not going to get carried away.
“We have work to do as a unit to make sure we get the balance right between defensively solid and an attacking threat throughout, the players are now clear after 15 games on how I want them to play and how we want to defend and how we want to build play, the options they have in possession of the ball, they can only get better as a group as we move forward.”
The late win against Carlisle on Saturday was something Harris doubted would have happened without the confidence the side now have.
“I am just pleased for the club again,” he said. “Would we have done that a few moths ago? I don’t think we would have done, I don’t think we would have had the confidence or the belief to do it, I think that is where we are as a club at the moment, we are in a great place.”
