Gillingham boss Neill Harris issued an immediate apology following his team’s dismal defeat at Tranmere on Saturday.

The Gills gifted three goals to the hosts and didn’t have a shot on target at the other end as they suffered their second away defeat in as many games in League 2.

“Firstly, on behalf of my group, I apologise to the loyal fans that travelled,” said Harris.

“It’s not a position I like to be in as the leader of the pack, having to apologise, but the performance wasn’t acceptable.

“I can accept not playing well or being undone by really good play but we got outfought and outcompeted. I always talk openly and honestly, everyone knows that by now, and that shouldn’t happen for any of my teams.

“I have to assess the players individually and collectively but off the top of my head we came up the road against a team that have not overly competed well in the first couple of games and they’ve turned us over. It’s not acceptable and I’ll do my darndest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The dressing room inquest didn’t last long after the full-time whistle.

Not only was Harris conscious that Gills are back in league action against Harrogate on Tuesday night, he always wanted the players to make themselves accountable for their display.

“It's not always about what the manager says, I’m interested in what the players say,” explained Harris.

“The players were very quiet and disappointed. I’d like to see a few more opinions, I’ve got to be honest. It wasn’t the time to rant and rave, we have to pick ourselves up to go again on Tuesday.

“I just asked the players just to watch the game back themselves and judge themselves and do they think it’s acceptable to represent our football club in that manner. I think there will be a reality check for some of them.

“We got beat at Wimbledon by making a couple of errors but today the goals were just horrific. They’re an embarrassment for a manager to stand there and watch us concede goals like we did.

“It’s just not acceptable. The players have got to improve quickly or they won’t play.”

Harris contemplated matching Tranmere’s 3-5-2 formation before the game but went with a back four, and didn’t change until half-time.

It coincided with Gillingham’s best spell of the game.

“We changed shape at half-time and matched up Tranmere, only as I thought we weren’t brave enough with the football in the first half.

• Match report: Tranmere 3-0 Gillingham

“Shape against shape, we didn’t find the space or move the ball quickly enough, we didn’t move it anywhere near as well as we did against Wimbledon or Rochdale.

“It was more important that we matched up their shape to try and give us a foothold to try and compete. For 15-20 minutes, I thought we were the better team, we hit the post, had a couple along the line and were in the ascendancy.

“Then we’ve just given really poor goals away. For the second one I can half make an excuse that Max Ehmer is off the pitch and we’ve got Jordan Green playing at wing-back.”