Gillingham boss Steve Evans reckons his players could learn a thing or two from Lincoln City captain Liam Bridcutt.

The City skipper - who was Evans’ first signing when he was manager at Leeds United - was in the referee’s ear most of the night when the Gills played the title-chasers on Friday.

Evans had no complaints about the antics of the 31-year-old who he labelled the ‘quiet assassin’ before the match and then watched as he controlled the game from the centre of the park.

The Gills boss said: “I told the boys that Liam Bridcutt would be the quiet assassin, he would marshal around the referee all night, he would never be more than six yards away from the referee, when the big decisions come you would be surprised how many he gets. He has always been like that and I have no complaints.

“He goes about his business in a real quiet way but I found he was very infectious getting around the referee.

“He would be saying, ‘that’s a penalty’, ‘that’s a foul’, ‘that’s a free-kick’, ‘that’s our way’, but it is human nature. He controls it and it is a real learning curve for us about how we have to try and manage the match referee. It is a learning curve for all of us, a learning curve for our young captain.

“We are in a season where I can’t remember a decision going in our favour where I thought, ‘that’s not a free-kick’, or ‘that’s not a penalty’, we haven’t had anything.”

Gillingham would have also benefited from a home crowd behind them on Friday night and Evans believes they are missing the fans more than most in League 1.

Evans said: “I hear a lot of other managers saying about missing the fans at their clubs and I think ‘really?! There isn’t an atmosphere there anyway.’

“I have been lucky, I have managed clubs where the passion and support is tremendous, and at Gillingham we have got a brilliant home support, we are missing it.

“We are one of six in the league that as an opposition manager, you travel on a team coach and part of your team talk is ‘don’t give these any reason to get right behind them’ and that was always my team talk at Priestfield.

"I go around the country and there are probably half a dozen teams in League 1 where you recognise that the supporters play a massive part. Gillingham and Priestfield is one of them, that’s a fact. As an opposition manager you can gauge an atmosphere and hostility and desire from the seats more than a home manager does. I have been on the back end of it at Priestfield, I know what it is like. We miss them more than words.

“These are testing times, we just need to get everyone vaccinated and through to the summer and let’s get football back to how football normally is.”

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