Neil Harris isn’t putting any additional pressure on his Gillingham team ahead of their midweek home match with lowly Cambridge United.

It’s a game that many will look at being must-win with the Gills being eight points from safety with 16 to play.

But Gills boss Harris said: “I don’t want to put too much pressure on a game, or certainly not put pressure on myself or my players.”

Gillingham have had two games under Harris, beating Crewe 1-0 and losing to Ipswich at the weekend by the same scoreline.

Harris and assistant David Livermore had exactly 2hrs 27mins with the players on the training ground after a whirlwind first week for the management team. It’s little time to get his inherited squad to play the way he wants but he’s had some growing success.

The players were in on Sunday as Harris looks to utilise every spare hour he can, although he admitted there was little work he could have done with the squad after a tough match at Ipswich.

“We just have to box smart,” Harris said.

“It takes time but what we can do in the meantime is find ways to win football matches and one game won’t define our season.

“All we can do is control it one game at a time.

“The challenge for the players now is to repeat that (weekend performance). We will prepare them to be better again and all that matters now is Tuesday.”

Harris has offered no guarantees since he walked in the door, whether that be survival or quality every week, but his players are currently showing they are willing to put in the hard work that he demands.

He said: “We have got what we have got in the building and I need to get the best out of them.

“Gillingham Football Club is based on pride and passion and front-foot football, it hasn’t got to be 3,000 passes in a game, the (supporters) want to see high tempo. They saw it for 45 minutes (last Tuesday) before we ran out of steam and they have seen it for 90 minutes (on Saturday) and they will continue to see it.”

Visitors Cambridge are sitting 14th in the table, eight points from the bottom four.