Gillingham will be venturing into the unknown as they take on a Hartlepool United team with a new manager.

Experienced manager Keith Curle took charge this week on an interim basis after Paul Hartley was sacked. Gillingham’s weekend opponents sit second from bottom in League 2, two points worse off than Neil Harris’ side and without a win in the league from their opening nine games.

• More: Scally continues search for investment

It’s a massive game on Saturday. Victory for the Gills will see them push clear of the relegation places and go some way to putting last weekend’s drab defeat to Mansfield behind them but lose and they will be in the bottom two.

For Harris, he’s had to focus on his own team, as he admits they don’t know what the opposition will do.

“I do expect a very different Hartlepool with a different style of play,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for us to respond, and find a way of winning games.

“In Keith they have an experienced League 2 manager, he should be able to hit the ground running, they have obviously had a disappointing start themselves, you normally get that new manager bounce and we have to be wary of that and there will probably be a change of attitude in the stadium.

“But as soon as Paul Hartley lost his job, whoever was going to come in, it becomes a bit of the unknown for us, but when it is the unknown you focus on yourself. You get to know the opponent and individual players but I don’t know what Keith is going to do, playing wise, what team he will pick or even what formation he is going to play, you worry about yourself and focus on that and it’s what we’ve done this week.”

• Defensive changes after international call-up

With one win from nine in the league and off the back of the Mansfield defeat, Harris admits it’s “a huge game” coming up.

Reflecting on the previous performance he said: “I take responsibility, it is my team. I have to pick the right players and formation of course, but I can’t accept that the players get out-fought and bullied, that is not acceptable for a Neil Harris team. We have to find a way.

“Mansfield were better than us. It gives me solace in the fact we are competitive against most of the teams, but we have to find a way that when we come up against teams like Mansfield and Tranmere, we have to stand up to it better than we have done.”

Harris was asked after the Mansfield defeat if he was still the right man for the job.

“I think I am,” he said. “I would say that at any club. Ultimately it is not my decision is it? It falls on the board of the football club.

“As a manager you just go about your business. I am a proud person who wants to do well and wants to be successful. I have come here to be successful. I will carry on doing that.

• Midfielder back and in talks over a Gills contract

“It is a football club that needs a massive rebuild, I knew that when I took over and I talked about it in my first press conference, that hasn’t changed. Just because players change that the club will be on a rollercoaster and end up in the Premier League, if people think that they are in Cuckoo Land.

“Will I be given time? Who knows in football, you never know do you. I hope so because I enjoy my job, it is the biggest challenge I have ever had, in my playing or managerial career.

“I knew it would be tough, there are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week that I can put into trying to slowing down the juggernaut of the disappointment that we have had for a period of time now, before I got here and a lot of my time here, you have to keep working to slow it down, turn it around and move it in the right direction.”