Gillingham have caught the eye with their recent transfer business but the manager knows they have to get it right on the pitch.

Neil Harris’ men head into their match with Hartlepool United this Saturday sitting six points adrift of safety in League 2. It’s a battle of the bottom two at Priestfield.

• A coup for Gills as striker signs

“Nobody is losing sight of where we are in the division,” said the Gills boss.

“We are not ignoring it, we have to try and focus on us and how we can improve and we have to pick points up on those teams around us.

“We showed last year we can do it very quickly, we have to make sure we do it by the start of May and we end up out of the bottom two.

“It is a huge game Saturday against Hartlepool, just above us in the league, we need to close that gap and chase the teams above us. We are the underdog at the moment, fighting for our lives and that is where I have been at the best in my career.

“We have to have that spirit, determination and desire as we showed against Leicester (in the FA Cup) as the underdog. We might be bringing in players and being able to financially compete against the rest of the division, but we are still the underdog and we have to make sure that every game we are at it and that starts on Saturday.”

Gills’ new owner Brad Galinson promised the fans an aggressive approach to the January transfer window and that’s what has happened. Four players have already joined.

Harris said: “We are doing sensible business, we are doing aggressive business, we have signed players and we will carry on signing players but we are only catching up with where a lot of teams are.

“I have had to wait a period to be in this position, to sign players we want to attract at this football club, again it is not about blowing others out of the water, it is about being able to compete with the top 10-12 teams in this division and that’s all we’re doing.

“We are able to compete in the transfer market along with the likes of Leyton Orient, Stevenage, Stockport, Salford, Bradford, we are able to rival them in taking players of the calibre we need.

"It is a nice position to be in, a privileged position to be in but we have underperformed so far and I 100% accept that, and appreciate that, it is now my job with the players we are bringing in the building to make us better, I am going to enjoy it.”

While Harris is adding players, he knows they also need to perform as a team. He needs results now.

“Every game counts,” Harris said. “We haven’t got the time to build over a course of three, four or five games, we have to hit the ground running on Saturday and that comes down to me on the coaching pitch, to get the best out of the players as quickly as I can.

“We are going to keep adding, but there is a balance, a financial balance but a balance between happiness in the changing room. If you go too big a group then, naturally, players become disinterested and you can lose harmony, that is why it is important to sign the right characters but also we want to make sure we have competition in areas of the pitch.

“This is quite a big window for us, a major window, we have to be better in the second half of the season.

“It almost feels like a fresh start for everyone, naturally we have seen a spring in people’s step in training, people looking over their shoulders, thinking if they will get a game or play.

“Everyone has had an opportunity, we have had 35 games. Some will get better with a better calibre of player around them, some might fall by the wayside. The group try hard, they try and compete as best they can, physically, technically and tactically. We are in a position where we can add to the group and we need to, we need to keep adding.

“What we have done so far is fantastic, but we will keep adding because to be competitive and get to the points total we need, to improve where we are, then we need to add to the group, we all know that.”