Gillingham manager Steve Evans has insisted he is not concerned with his team’s form going into the new season, despite the Gills losing two and drawing one of their final three pre-season games.
After beating Colchester United and Watford earlier on in the summer, Evans’ side lost 2-1 to Reading before drawing 0-0 and losing 1-0 respectively to League Two sides Cambridge United and Leyton Orient, but Evans, speaking to KentSportsNews on Thursday, claimed results aren’t important.
Performances vital
“As a manager you do not look at results, you look at performances” said Evans.
“If you break it down, we lost at Leyton Orient, but for half an hour in the second half we were an absolute pleasure and joy to watch, and speaking to a couple of their players and staff afterwards, they said we were a different level for that half an hour. But we have to take chances, we did not do that well enough, but that is why pre-season is around.
“We went to Colchester and won comfortably, had a scrappy game in terrible conditions against Cambridge, and performed really well for 40 minutes against Reading. So, we are getting there. It is a new group, it will take time.
“I have had teams put in poor performances in pre-season and then they play well in the league and vice versa. I can remember at Peterborough United recently, Bolton Wanderers came into town and beat us 2-0 as comfortably as a team could beat us, but after nine or ten games we were top of the league and setting club records in some areas. So, you can never tell.”
Moving forward
Gillingham went away to a training camp just last week, and it was a trip that helped the new team gel ahead of the new season. Evans insisted it was a vital getaway.
He said: “We had a couple of days away, not long enough but the venue said that was all the time we could have there. We followed a Premier League club – as they left, we went in – and there was a real bonding starting to take place.
🗣 | SE: "It is a real different experience as we found out in pre-season. We will miss the supporters, but we have to get on with our Football." #Gills
— Gillingham FC (@TheGillsFC) September 3, 2020
“The group is young; the banter is flowing. We just look forward to working with them every day as these young kids come in with a smile on their faces. We are the youngest team in League One, but what comes from that is responsibility to perform.
“We have learnt we can play many systems. People that have watched us know we have been comfortable with three at the back, four at the back, five across midfield, three in midfield, two wide players up top with the striker, two strikers up top, one striker up top one in behind. So, we have deployed all the systems and done that in training as well.”
Excited football is back
And with 182 days between competitive fixtures for the Gills, Evans can’t wait to get going again.
“It is great football is back” he said. “We had to endure the very quick stop last season. We had real aspirations for making the top group, but I think it stopped for the right reasons. It is very different, but it is good to be back.
“We have had to assemble a new squad. We lost players we did not want to lose, and our loan players went back. We have had to have a mini rebuild. We are a lot younger. We need to work on the consistency because there is a lot of ability.
“The group is in a good place. It is going to be challenging for everyone, but we are all immensely looking forward to it.”
Gillingham will kick off their 2020/21 season on Saturday when they face Southend United in the first round of the Carabao Cup.