Gillingham manager Neil Harris has praised the senior players who showed up for him on Saturday.

Harris said after their previous game at Grimsby that he needed his experienced men around and at the weekend, when he was short on numbers, both George Lapslie and Tom Nichols helped get them through.

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The Gills boss admitted Lapslie was blowing after just 25 minutes, having barely trained in two weeks, and Nichols felt he could only manage 15. Both were recovering from knocks and the pair lasted a lot longer than expected.

Harris has also seen injured striker Oli Hawkins step up his injury recovery and 36-year-old captain Shaun Williams last the distance in the energy-sapping heat at the weekend, firing them to victory late on.

Harris said: “I am really pleased with the character of the players and off the back of maybe some stern words from me in my post-match presser (after Grimsby) and in the changing room, that is a great way to respond, I can’t praise the players highly enough for that result.

“George Lapslie got through 60-odd minutes and he needed to come off after 25, he signalled to say he might be done already, because he had 30 minutes of training in two and a half weeks. I was delighted with the character shown by the boys.

“Tom Nichols hadn’t trained but he came to see me on Friday and said, ‘Gaffer, we are short, I know you are thinking about going with five subs, I have 15 minutes in me!’ I put him on at 65 and he had to go for longer than we hoped.

“He said he wasn’t fit but would give me what he’s got. There was a debate between myself and the physio department, and him, as to whether he was ready or not but that is what senior players can do, you have to trust your senior players to make sensible decisions.

“At half-time we considered taking George Lapslie off but I thought George was too important for us at times during the game but just at the end, when he can’t get to the ball and he starts stretching, he’s in danger of injury.”

Lapslie was subbed after 58 minutes for Jayden Clarke, who was named as a substitute after plenty of recent minutes and according to Harris some “ridiculous” running stats against Luton in the League Cup.

Nichols replaced Jonny Williams with 67 minutes played.

“I said to Tom, ‘are you alright?’ He was already taking his shirt off as he was saying, ‘yes, I’ll have to be’, and that said to me he wanted to do it and that’s what you want.

“Last week, when I said I need some senior players to come to me and go, ‘Gaffer, I want to play’, I got that with George Lapslie, Tom Nichols and I have got it with Oli Hawkins and I have got it with Shaun Williams. I asked him (Williams) if he wanted to come off and he said, ‘no, don’t take me off!’ Well done Shaun Williams.”

Gillingham’s senior players will now be grateful for a run of free midweeks to help them recovery from a tough opening six weeks of the season, where the Gills have played seven league games and three in cup competitions.

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Harris also swapped Ashley Nadesan for Macauley Bonne upfront at the weekend.

Explaining his decision, he said: “Macauley gave us more of a physical presence up top and he was a real handful but right at the end we took him off, he looked heavy-legged and tired, we got him off at the right time.

“I picked a team that I thought could win a game of football. I had to rely a lot on Shaun Williams’ experience to get us through and George Lapslie’s heart, the desire to go and run and he was excellent.

“Someone behind me said ‘why you taking Laplsie off?!’ Well, he had only had 30 minutes training and wasn’t in the building for a lot of the last two and a half weeks. Credit to the players, the team I picked and the lads who came off the bench, they were excellent.”