Gillingham manager Neil Harris has demanded his players up their standards for the weekend trip to Harrogate.

A deflating 2-0 home defeat against Bradford City leaves the Gills one place above Saturday’s hosts and a couple of points better off. Crucially, they are seven points above the bottom two.

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Harris said: “The biggest thing for me now is that off the back of a home defeat is that we react on Saturday and that is all I am interested in.

“I asked for a reaction after Mansfield (Gills’ previous defeat) and I got it with back-to-back wins.

“I am going to be demanding even more than ever a response from that performance (against Bradford), that lack of quality in the opponent’s half. I want a better performance than that on Saturday against Harrogate.

“I was quite cutting with the players, I have to be honest. I did have a few choice words with them after the game.

“We have set better standards than we have shown (on Tuesday) with and without the ball. We have had better habits on the pitch in the last eight games.

“We didn’t reach those levels and I have left the players in no uncertain terms what I expect, but then I have quickly said to them as well, they have been great for me.

“I have had my say, it’s now gone. I won’t forget the performance in a hurry but I will put it to one side and focus on Saturday. We have a massive game on the road.”

The Gills have 33 points - more than half of those have come since the turn of the year - and a win would put a lot of daylight between them and the bottom four places if they can bag the points in North Yorkshire, in what will be the club’s first visit to the Wetherby Road ground.

Harris said: “We have an opportunity at Harrogate to chase those teams above us and put distance between those teams below us and that is all I am going to focus on.

“I know from where we are that the teams below us have to make up a hell of a lot of ground in a short space of time to go above us, and that is why we have to win three or four more games of football and then they won’t catch us.

“We just need to get a certain amount of points, we need to win a certain amount of games this year to make sure we stay in the division.

“It is nice to beat those teams around us, because it takes points away from them, but ultimately if you get a point a game in this division you stay in the division, that is the bottom line.

“If you get 46-47 points [you] stay in the division, that is fact. We just have to make sure we amass the points and just pick up the wins when we can.”