Gillingham boss Steve Evans believes his team’s relentless showing was the undoing of their opponents.

Lincoln boss Michael Appleton blasted his players after a dour showing against the Gills.

Evans said: “I don’t think we gave some extremely talented players the opportunity to get the talent out of the bag.

"We said to the players pre-match, ‘if we let them get the talent out of the bag, it could be a long day.’

Report: Gillingham 1 Lincoln City 0

“When we had a very good Rotherham team, every manager who came to see us afterwards for a drink would say, ‘you were relentless.’ That word would sum up our second half performance.”

Imps boss Appleton said he was angry at his team’s showing as they continue to slip down the League 1 table.

“We stopped them playing,” said Evans.

“They have got terrific players, they have got the boy Tyler Walker who everyone in League 1 wanted, they have Jack Payne and we certainly spoke to him, we couldn’t afford his train fare, never mind his demands.

“They have got terrific players and they are having to operate under a different style from Danny and Nicky Cowley to what they are under Michael, but I can’t really talk about Lincoln’s performance, other than to say we did enough to make their performance not so good.

“We were very good second half and I would give us credit rather than worry about Lincoln. I have no thoughts about Lincoln until we are ready to go and play them again.”

Evans knew the match against Lincoln would be tough but his team had a number of chances second half to make for a comprehensive scoreline.

He said: “We should have won by three or four, but we will take 1-0, a clean sheet and three points.

“The encouraging part was the second half performance. We were up against a dogged team in this league and they brought on John Akinde and Cian Bolger (at the break).

“They went for a different type of approach, everything went through the big fella (Akinde) and that is why I was so impressed by Jack Tucker second half. He went toe to toe, shoulder to shoulder with someone who normally beats people up in League 1 and he said to me, ‘your young centre half gave me a battle.’

Evans added: “! was really pleased with our quality of football and passages of play second half.

“I said to the boys, we are still not there for the 90 minutes. We had a dogged first half but a very good second half.”