Gillingham boss Neil Harris has offered some defence to his strikers.

While the Gills have only scored six goals in League 2 so far, Harris believes it’s harsh to only point the finger at his forward players when they aren’t getting the service to deliver.

Mikael Mandron has five goals, Lewis Walker four and Scott Kashket one.

Walker’s latest goal came in the FA Cup replay win over AFC Fylde, slotting home the only goal of the game. Harris had switched his forwards for the match, leaving Mandron on the bench.

Harris now hopes Walker can start making an impact in the league, saying: “He needs to make sure he is a threat in league football in the standards we train and play at every day, he needs to be a threat to defenders. I am really pleased he has got four goals now.

“He has to transfer that form into the league, but what I will say, to defend my centre-forwards, yes they know they need to be more clinical but we haven’t made bundles of chances for them, let’s be honest, we have not made clear-cut chances game after game.

“Lewis and Mika both had one chance last Saturday, I think both should score, but they only had one chance. Mika is on five goals but he has had three disallowed.

"It is a creative spark that we are missing and having Ben Reeves back fit will help but we need to be patient with him because of his injury history, not just in the last 10 months, but the last 10 years, it is word of warning for us, we need him back up to speed as quick as possible.”

Kashket should have added to his tally with a penalty against AFC Fylde on Tuesday night but missed the target.

“He was brave enough to take the penalty,” Harris said. “If you step up and take it, then you have to be big enough to miss. He put the penalties in very well during the shoot-outs (against Colchester and Brentford), as we have as a team.

“It probably summed our season up, when we miss that penalty in the first 10 minutes, we were thinking we could get in front and really step on the gas. We picked a really strong side and picked a team to go hard at the game and being 1-0 up so early would have been a massive help to us.

“It sums us up really doesn’t it? A free shot at goal and you miss, but credit to the lads, we had chances after chances after that and we should have been out of sight at half-time. Kash now has to bounce back.”