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It’s game on at Norwich for Gillingham’s final pre-season challenge and boss Steve Evans is ready for a tough evening.
Last season’s Championship title-winners are preparing for another season in the top-flight and will be fired up for the Gills after their last two games were called off because of Covid.
Premier League Norwich cancelled games against Coventry City and Sheffield United as a precautionary measure because of positive Covid-19 cases in their squad. Their league season starts with a match against Liverpool on Saturday, August 14.
No further problems have been announced by Norwich and looking ahead to the fixture, Evans said: “We will have to be organised and efficient at Norwich but I don’t worry about quality opposition against us.
“With all due respect we don’t want to go local in Kent and win 7-0, it serves me no purpose unless you are trying to please your chairman and keep the fans smiling.
“I am lucky, a lot of Gillingham fans know lots about football, they will look at our starting team (at Leyton Orient) and our last 25 minute team and look that we are still trying to do business. They will say the last 20 (on Saturday) was dominant without the end product, which is what we are working on. That was a good test for us.
“I have always believed in a tough pre-season. Going to Leyton Orient is tough, playing against those teams we had scheduled to play, Millwall, Peterborough and QPR. I could pop down to Folkestone and Dover and win by six but that won’t help me when it comes to playing Lincoln (on the first game).
There should be a decent crowd at Carrow Road tomorrow (Tuesday) as the Norwich fans return home post-lockdown.
Evans said: “We are very proud to be invited by Norwich City Football Club to play their first game of football infront of supporters since winning promotion.
“Norwich will be about organisation and discipline, people matching runners and doing their jobs, keeping the ball when we have got possession of it, because I don’t think for one minute we will have a lot of it.”