Manager Neil Harris insists there won’t be a knee-jerk reaction to Saturday’s disappointing display.

Since mid-January his new-look side have quickly pulled clear of relegation trouble but he expected a few bumps in the road. A 2-0 weekend loss to Walsall was certainly one of those.

• No complacency from the Gills goalie

Tonight the Gills get a chance to prove it was a blip when they host a Crewe side who sit 18th in League 2 - four points better off than the Harris’ side - but without an away win in four months.

Crewe’s last win on the road - one of only two away successes this season - came at Swindon on November 19. The three wins from their last 18 games in the league have all come at home.

Talking about his own side, Harris said: “We are still in an extremely healthy position in the league but we need to make sure it stays that way and we do that by having better standards to training than what I saw last Thursday.”

The Gills boss had been critical of the training leading up to that game at Walsall.

Harris continued: “I have had my critical say and my positive say. I have to pick the right team for Tuesday night, then in some ways as a manager you pick your team, slip out of the changing room and say, ‘come on lads, it is now about you’.

“They have done it brilliantly, they have done it in training sessions, they have done it in games, done it as a group and now ‘come on, let’s do it again.’

“There is an opportunity to freshen up, to change, to change shape, whatever I want to do, yes of course the options are there, what I will remind myself is that these lads have done great, no knee jerk.

“It was important that I let them know how I feel after a game, with the right context, and I have done that. Then it becomes about quickly switching my attention to Crewe and picking the right players for the game.

“I have praised my players very nicely over the last couple of months because they have got better and they have kept producing. We didn’t hit those standards (at Walsall), so if I am going to keep picking them up, bigging them up and telling them well done, when they don’t achieve what is expected, the basics, then they need reminding so I have reminded them, but for me over the last eight to 10 weeks, excellent.

“For us, it is about being safe this year and then building momentum going into next season, that is it. This is a little bump in the road and we have to make sure it stays like that.”

While Crewe have struggled on the road, the Gills have been enjoying some good home form, with five wins from their last six at Priestfield.

“We want to continue that vein of form,” said Harris. “It is a league game of football so it is going to be tight, it will be scrappy at times and some moments of quality and that is what we need to produce.

“What Saturday does is give a little rocket up the backside to the group, a little reminder that we have achieved nothing yet, we have got a long way to go, as I keep stressing, and we have to get back at it on Tuesday.

“I expect a response, I expect a fast start, it’s over to the players.”

Robbie McKenzie returned from injury on Saturday, replacing David Tutonda as the left-back came off following treatment from physio Gary Hemens. Harris was unsure at the time what the problem was but Tutonda could be replaced in the XI tonight.

Alex MacDonald and Dom Jefferies will be vying for a return to the starting line-up while young midfielder Ethan Coleman is another option after missing out of the 17-man squad at the weekend.