Gillingham boss Steve Evans believes their point at MK Dons has laid the foundation for their League 1 fightback.

A goalless draw at Milton Keynes ended a run of five straight losses in the league for the Gills and lifts them a place higher, up to third from bottom.

Evans admits his team are facing a battle to avoid the drop but now has his big players back available - giving them a fighting chance of making up lost ground in the second-half of the season.

“We will have no issues with these players back, we will be fine,” Evans said.

“We have made a good start (to 2022) but it is like building a house, we need to get the base right, we will work hard on the training ground in the week, to take us into Ipswich (this coming Saturday).

“We would have beaten a lot of teams with that performance (at MK Dons). They are a really good side. We need to keep focussed. We came into 2022 and I addressed the group and I said ‘this is the start of what we are all about’.

“It is a solid start. Winning 1-0 or 2-0 at MK Dons would have been a good one. It is solid from where we have been.

“We are not getting carried away, it was a solid performance. We need to do some business (in the January window) and we know where we need to do it.”

Evans is on the trail of a Premier League striker and the club are looking at a couple of other potential deals too.

Vadaine Oliver, Max Ehmer, Dan Phillips and Kyle Dempsey were all in the squad at MK Dons after fending off injury, giving Evans options he’s not had for some time. Oliver and Dempsey have been out for over a month.

He said: “It has been the hardest six to eight weeks ever, with players getting injured game after game, not small injuries, six, eight, 10 weeks, consistently for seven or eight weeks.

“I have always said you have to find a way to come back in the next day and get motivated and be positive with the group because we have got what we have got every time we play.

“Liam Manning (the MK Dons manager) said before we played them he didn’t know what team we would come with. I am 100% certain when he saw the teamsheet he would have known it would be tough, as oppose to recent weeks when managers have been getting the teamsheet and thinking 'if we score one we will get three or four'.

“That is no disrespect to the kids [Evans had been using youth players to fill his matchday squads] but Bolton have just spent £350-400,000 on a striker form Accrington and their manager has said this league is not a league for kids who are untried.

"Harvey (Lintott) and Gerald (Sithole) certainly have a chance going forward and so does young Bailey (Akehurst), two years younger. But without those kids we wouldn’t be here today.”