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Gillingham boss Steve Evans believes weekend opponents Wigan Athletic remain a force to be reckoned with despite their troubles.
Wigan were relegated from the Championship after receiving a points deduction for entering administration, and their team is much-changed, but Evans has seen first-hand that they aren’t short of quality.
He’s travelling north today (Friday) with a slender squad and is unlikely to be able to fill up the bench.
Having watched Wigan’s 2-0 defeat to Ipswich Town in person on Sunday, Evans said: “It will be very, very difficult to go to Wigan, despite their problems, they will probably have 28-30 players to chose from. We have two kids and 15 others.
“I went to watch them last week at Ipswich and it was a very impressive performance that deserved something. When you can pick up a teamsheet and still see some of their players, like Joe Garner, who leads the line, a proper, proper striker. I could go around their team. The boy Roberts is 35-36 but his left foot is a wand.
“I know they have one or two younger players but it is still a very impressive 14-15 players. I don’t think Wigan are in any danger whatsoever but for the sake of that football club and for the sake of football they just need to get sorted out don’t they?
“But that’s not my business, my business is to go there and try and get a positive result.”
Evans has already spoken of his task at Gillingham this season as being his biggest challenge ever. It’s got harder since, with the loss of key midfielder Stuart O’Keefe and Kyle Dempsey to injury.
Striker Brandon Hanlan departed to Bristol Rovers on the eve of the season, with a fee yet to be decided. That will be a task for a tribunal after the clubs couldn’t agree an amount.
Evans also pointed to issues off the field making things tricky.
He said: “This is without a shadow of a doubt the hardest management job that anyone could ever experience.
“The training ground is not ready because of Covid and irrigation problems and so we are having to find other training facilities.
“We are short on bodies in terms of numbers and quite rightly our chairman will have concerns about spending in these times when, as yet, for some reason the Premier League have not come and helped the lower-league clubs, which is a mystery to all of us.
"The Premier League need to have a look at themselves. I still see transfers of £40, £50, £60 million and we have clubs in League 1 and 2 who struggling to survive. Maybe some of them forget where their players come from."
Earlier this week Macclesfield Town were wound up at the High Court with debts of over £500,000. On the same day Southend United were given a deadline of October 28 to pay £493,991 owed to HM Revenue and Customs. Gills own chairman Paul Scally has recently been critical of HMRC's demands of clubs, including their own .
Gills boss Evans was able to add to his playing group on Thursday, with Coventry City midfielder Josh Eccles joining on loan . He was back in Gillingham training less than 24 hours after playing for the Sky Blues at Priestfield in the Carabao Cup.
Adding a striker to the ranks is a big priority and one the Gills are working on.
“We are trying to add up top desperately,” said Evans.
“We lost Brandon. Bristol Rovers came into town, put their balaclavas on and put him in a car. They took him away. Well done them! If I had the money of Bristol Rovers I would do the same.
“We are searching the market and hopefully we will do some business but those deals are just not ready and available. There are very few players out there.
“We are in talks with one, we are very close, it won’t happen for Saturday, but we are very close. It may be we have good news for our supporters on Monday.”
Several EFL games will be used as pilot events this weekend, with a maximum 1,000 fans allowed to attend. Wigan won’t be one of those teams as they decided against asking to be considered.
It will mean another empty stadium, something Evans admits his team are getting used to, even if they don’t like it.
Evans said: “Wigan is a big club, great supporters and very passionate about their football. It is a town divided between rugby and football, everyone knows that. I have taken a team to the football and I have watched rugby there. They are very passionate about their rugby and their football.
“They will have no backing themselves and it is a very different experience playing with no supporters.
“The players have now had the benefit of pre-season games and some cup games with it and the one league game and a lot of our players are younger, under-23, probably a lot of our team would have played under-23 football last year and you don’t get a lot of crowd there. We would like to think that maybe it affects us less.”
Despite Gillingham’s lack of players at the weekend, Evans will back them fully to get a result.
He said: “We have to focus and keep working hard. It is tough, our training ground is not what it should be, but i have always been a character in my football and personal life that gets in the trenches and what do you do? You fight.
“We have some very talented footballers who give everything they can and i will be very proud to take them to Wigan.”
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