Gillingham visit bottom side Rochdale this Saturday - but manager Neil Harris isn't expecting an easy ride.

Dale have been battling it out in the bottom two divisions of the Football League for over 100 years and Harris knows they won’t be going down without a fight - as they've shown in recent weeks against League 2's top sides.

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Their weekend opponents are now five points adrift at the bottom after a 2-1 defeat to league leaders Leyton Orient. The O’s were two-up before former Gills man Danny Lloyd got one back to give them belief.

They conceded a late goal against promotion-chasing Northampton at the weekend in a 1-1 draw.

Looking ahead to the weekend, Harris said: “I expect a team that will fight, a team that wants to stay in the Football League, as we are fighting at the moment, as others will be fighting down the bottom.

“We have to be professional, have the same qualities we have had in the first six games as a group, we have to have the quality we showed in the second half on Tuesday (in the win against Grimsby), qualities we had at Swindon in abundance to score three goals in the first half, the qualities we showed with our fighting spirit and aggression at Colchester and that is what we need. We probably need our best performance to go there and win.”

Lloyd’s goal for Dale was his first for the club - making a positive contribution since signing for them as a free agent after recovering from a lengthy injury - one he picked up while playing a starring role for the Gills at Ipswich a year ago.

Dale’s last four games have been against top-six opposition and they have pushed every one of them close. They will be looking at the Gills without any fear.

Their manager Jim Bentley said: “We could have taken something from those games (we lost) and we should have take a win on Saturday. Second half we were the better side (against Leyton Orient).

“We have to believe in ourselves and coming into games like against Gillingham where if we take some of performances of late - certainly second half - I am sure we will have more points that we have returned recently.

"There has to be hope and I am positive. We have come through a tough spell and we’re back home looking to get that win to kick on and get us up the league table.”