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Gillingham boss Steve Evans says his team will need to be careful against penalty kings Lincoln City.
The Imps have had 15 penalties awarded in their favour this season - including one which proved costly for the Gills at Priestfield back in February.
In contrast, Evans’ side have scored just six penalty kicks so far this term.
Lincoln won 3-0 at Priestfield, scoring their second goal from the spot when the match was in the balance. Jorge Grant converted that day and has netted an incredible 11 spot kicks in total this season for the Imps, missing another three. Anthony Scully has also had one saved for the promotion-chasers.
Evans felt Lincoln’s Brennan Johnson had dived to win the penalty at Priestfield and ahead of the match at Sincil Bank tonight, he said: “We will need to be careful if people go to ground but there won’t be an over exuberance on that.
“We were unlucky at Priestfield, the referee called it wrong, a lot of the referees have the honesty and the integrity and they do apologise and people say, ‘does it make a difference?’ It doesn’t but I make mistakes. We all do.
“When I make a mistake I apologise to my playing staff, my staff and the chairman. At home, if the toast isn’t on the table and I am making breakfast, I apologise. You have to be able to say I got that wrong.
“We were let down by Lincoln at home and Fleetwood away [when Gills were beaten by another controversial penalty], we don’t seem to get penalties. There was a stonewall one (on Saturday) when Connor Ogilvie is pushed by the goalkeeper, the match referee decided not to give it and he is in charge.”
Evans will hope referee Ross Joyce gets things right at Sincil Bank tonight.
He said: “I think they have got more penalties in the Football League than anyone else by some distance and their counter argument is, 'well, we are in the box attacking'. The other argument is have a look at when they came down to us, you go, ‘really?’ But I am not thinking about that on Tuesday, that is just a fact.”
