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Gillingham's performance at Wolves left manager Neil Harris full of pride for the team - having struggled to put one together.
It was backs to the wall for much of the fourth round Carabao Cup tie and it was only a contentious 77th-minute penalty that finally saw Gills’ defensive resolve broken.
Harris felt it was a penalty decision that could have gone either way although he had no problem in admitting that the better team won on the night. But after illness had left many of his players sidelined, it was a valiant effort.
“I was proud of my players after a tough 48 hours for us,” said Harris, who was losing his voice after picking up an illness. He made his own way to the game to avoid mixing with the team on the coach.
“We have a problem in the camp with flu and whatever else, hence why we only named four substitutes and a goalkeeper who played last night (in the FA Youth Cup). It wasn’t ideal to take three midfield players off at the same time (in the second half) but we had to protect players.
“I’m really proud of the group, we dug in, the game went exactly how we expected it to, we got into a back five and a back six at times, they had the ball, we forced it around us with our shape, a disciplined shape and they found it difficult to break us down.
“To lose the first goal like we did (from a penalty) was frustrating, annoying, a very tight call, it could have gone either way but on the balance of play we can’t deny that Wolves deserved to win the game.
“We conceded in the third minute against Brentford (in the third round) so went 87 minutes against a top-10 Premier League side without conceding and we’ve gone 75-76 minutes without conceding (against Wolves) but conceding goals hasn’t been a problem for us this year, it’s at the other end that has been the problem.
“On the night we didn’t always carry a threat going forward, but we had moments, we had three corners, various free-kicks and I didn’t think we were good enough in the final third when we got those opportunities.”
The Gills have never been past the fourth round and it’s not to be again but the club have made good money from the competition and it’s helped generate some excitement from an otherwise tough campaign.
“I think the whole football club will be proud,” said the manager. “The fans were great, they brought the atmosphere to Molineux. I thought they made it. We expected it to have a bounce with the new manager coming in but I thought the home fans were very quiet, and our fans made it, it was a good cup tie for that.
“We won at Wimbledon (in round one), we beat Exeter (in the second round), we beat Brentford and we took Wolves to nearly 80 minutes so it has been a good run for us.”
Asked how he was, with the illness, Harris added: “It is a sore throat, it ruled out four players from travelling with us on the morning of the game, and two players throwing up in the toilet at the moment.
“I drove myself up to the game because I wouldn’t go on the team bus, I only came up (to the press conference) out of respect rather than sending someone else, so I have felt better but I am proud of my team.”
