A tough challenge awaits Gillingham as they start a new year but boss Steve Evans is glad to be seeing the back of 2021.

The Gills head to promotion chasing MK Dons tomorrow (Saturday) for their New Year's Day fixture looking to put a challenging 12 months behind them. They go into the weekend fixture having lost their last five in League 1, five points adrift of safety and dropping to second from bottom on Wednesday.

Covid issues have meant the last three Gillingham games have been postponed, two of them at the request of the Gills and that followed an horrendous run of injuries. There is much better hope now.

Boss Steve Evans said: “It’s been an eventful season and not always for the right reasons but I think everyone, whether you are a supporter of football or not, given what has happened with the virus and what has happened with people and their jobs, everyone will be glad to see the back of 2021, everyone will welcome 2022 with open arms and hopefully it will lead to much better times for all of us.”

Evans’ team were unable to sustain their play-off chase at the end of the 2020/21 season and the first half of the current campaign has been beset by problems.

Covid issues left his team playing catch-up in pre-season and in the last few months the squad - not big to start with - has been left in tatters with so many injuries, including to some of their key men.

But with the likes of captain Kyle Dempsey, top scorer Vadaine Oliver, defender Max Ehmer and Norwich loan midfielder Dan Adshead on the way back from soon, there is much to be looking forward to.

Weekend opponents MK Dons sit on the fringes of the play-off positions, winning 3-2 at Lincoln City last time out after finding themselves two down inside eight minutes.

Gillingham aren’t the only team to have had games off because of Covid. Six were off on Wednesday but there is optimism that they can return to action this weekend.

Teams can call games off if they can’t field a team of 14 and that’s been the case for the Gills even before the latest Covid issues hit them hard.

Evans said: “Some weeks we had one or two academy kids starting and three on the bench, we didn’t even have it (the 14 players) but we tried to get through it with integrity and play and others would have been calling games off but we need to protect this football club going forward all the way through to the last kick of the last game in April and make sure we have enough points and we can say '2021 was a really tough year for us as a club, and for the players and everything else, including decisions, massive decisions that have gone against us'.”

Tickets for the game at MK Dons can be made on the day at Stadium MK with card payments only.