Neil Harris admitted Gillingham were rubbish in the first half against Grimsby but got the job done after improving dramatically after the break.

The Gills played with more belief when they came out for the second 45 minutes, deservedly taking the lead through George Lapslie and then when they conceded, responded again to get a winner through Oli Hawkins.

• Report: Gillingham 2-1 Grimsby

Gillingham manager Harris said: “To not boo that rubbish in the first half must have been the crowd’s biggest achievement. I accept we are going to have poor games, poor halves of football. The fans stuck with us and second half we imposed ourselves again.

“I am not going to kid anyone, the first half was painful, if anyone was asking for their money back at half-time I wouldn’t have been surprised, but what I will say is that before the game Grimsby were seventh in the league for away record with two in hand, had they picked up four points from two games they would have gone second with points on the road. We knew they would be a tough nut to crack, a very good counter-attacking team.

“First half we lacked composure, nobody could get the ball down and make a pass, and the way they managed the game was excellent for the level, really professional, I think they frustrated the stadium, certainly frustrated me.

“I didn’t raise my voice at half-time, I did what I have done before, got the ice bucket, sat on it and just tried to find the right words of encouragement for the players individually and collectively and tweak a couple of things, that is my job, then hope the players can take the messages on board.

“I said to the boys ‘be braver, you’re good players, you have shown you are good.’ We deserved (the win) on the second half showing, the boys showed a bit of character to be infront and then concede and then to bounce back and finish as strong as we did, a special mention to the lads for that.

“It shows they are learning, learning all the time. I can’t praise them enough, it was another top second half performance.”

Even at 1-1, having conceded when in control after Lapslie’s opener, Harris remained confident that his men could find a winner - a far cry from the side in the first half of the season that couldn’t score for toffee.

Tom Nichols had a shot saved from close-range just before Hawkins rose well to nod in Cheye Alexander’s super cross.

Harris said: “With us at the moment I feel that any game that is tight we are capable of scoring at any moment, we can score in different ways, we can score on the counter-attack, on set-play, a really good goal, I am really comfortable.

“The quality of the two goals was very good and I am absolutely delighted for the big man (Hawkins) to get off the mark.

“At the moment I have to try and distance myself away from quality performances and try and put results first, we can talk about the first 20 minutes at Mansfield and the second half playing really well, but got nothing out of the game, we haven’t played as well (as Saturday) but we got three points, I have to accept at the moment that by hook or crook we have to get over the line in games.”