Gillingham boss Steve Evans took the positives from his team’s 2-1 pre-season friendly defeat at Championship side Reading on Saturday.

John Akinde scored from the penalty spot after two quickfire goals had seen the Gills trail 2-0.

The game was played in three segments of 30 minutes rather than the traditional two halves of 45 minutes.

“We deployed three or four different changes of shape, one or two things worked, one or two things didn’t but overall we have to say it’s another step on the journey,” said Evans.

“The simplicity of their two goals didn’t please me. They’ve got some wonderful players so we knew coming here was a test.

“We gave the ball away cheaply; they had a corner and we got outjumped. The second goal was sloppy when they caught us right after it.

“It was about three lots of 30 minutes, (so we said) let’s win the second period and we did that. In the final 30 minutes it was more end to end.”

Gills start their League 1 campaign at home to Hull on September 12 , seven days after the home Carabao Cup tie against Southend .

Summing up Saturday’s display, Evans added: “Positive, improving and the understanding is getting better. There’s lots of hard work still to be undertaken.

“We’ve got three weeks to be ready against Hull City but before that we have Southend in the cup.”

The Gills boss is still keen to add to his squad with another centre-back among the positions on his shopping list, despite bringing in the versatile Robbie McKenzie at the end of last week.

“We need some players, we’re talking to players,” he added. “We need to improve the group and will improve the group.

“Hopefully we’ll have some additions by the beginning or middle of the week.”

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