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Gillingham boss Steve Evans won’t be raiding the youth team to make up the numbers this weekend.
Evans has numerous injury issues ahead of their trip to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday but he would rather have a half-filled bench than take 15-year-old kids.
In what is becoming a regular theme, Evans has once again been left waiting on news from the treatment room before he can decide what kind of team he can select. Ryan Jackson, Robbie McKenzie and Rhys Bennett are all injury doubts after picking up knocks at the weekend.
Mustapha Carayol should return from illness but once again it leaves Evans looking around for players to fill his squad.
Evans said: “I am not taking kids that are 15 and putting them on the bench. I will go with two subs, one sub, whatever it is. I am not taking 15-year-old kids who are still going to school.”
With the transfer window shut he can only bring in free agents but he doesn’t feel that they are the answer.
He said: “You can bolster the squad and sign a couple of free agents that want thousands of pounds a week and they haven’t played football since April.
“They walk into the club with that £8-10,000 little soap bag under their arm and think they have arrived. We don’t want them, we are not that type of club.”
The early prognosis on the three that went off at the weekend was that they would be missing “for weeks”. Gillingham could be down to around 14 players for the trip to South Yorkshire.
They are up against a Wednesday team desperate for a swift return to the Championship and buoyed by a 3-0 win over fellow big-timers Sunderland in their last league outing. A run of draws prior to that leaves them currently off the pace in the League 1 table.
Gillingham might not have many players but the second half performance against Cheltenham in the FA Cup last weekend was one which gives Evans hope.
He said: “Nobody would give us a chance with a full squad, it is Sheffield Wednesday and we have to realise that we are not Sheffield Wednesday, we are Gillingham, but we can go there like we did that second half.
“I said to the players (on Saturday at half-time) we are changing to the positive system we have had and we will go out there, fight and try and get back into the cup tie. If we get beat 3-0 what is the worst that can happen to me? The fans shout at me? It has not happened many times to me in my career but they can shout at me. I have got broad shoulders.”
The Gills fought back to draw 1-1 and were pushing for a winner. Young striker Gerald Sithole helped turn the game around and Evans must decide whether to start the 18-year-old or once again keep him in reserve if needed.
Commenting on his lively young striker, Evans said: “He was getting released last summer, amazing. We like him, we will play him when we think he is ready.
“There was a big consideration over whether we would start him in the game. We just wanted as much experience on the pitch as we could (against Cheltenham).
“They had people like Vassell, who we couldn’t afford, Pollock, tried but couldn’t afford, Crowley who came off the bench, tried, couldn’t afford.
“I am looking for my 24 players on my mid-table budget and I am really looking for it, I keep looking under that mistletoe and it is not there, because our Christmas decorations are just about to go up and I keep looking in the box. We had three kids on the pitch (on Saturday), they are not ready, but in time they will be good players for this football club.”
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