Gillingham are back chasing other potential recruits as manager Steve Evans looks to add a left-sided player to his squad.

Evans admitted talks with his original target came to nothing after the player wanted a more defensive role, which would have seen him compete with star man Connor Ogilvie.

That wouldn’t do for Evans but he has been quick to change his focus and hopes fresh player talks can come to fruition.

He said: “The one I really wanted, we are not going to bring him in. He wanted to play a defensive left-sided role rather than where I see him.

“The kid is entitled to think that. That would have meant me taking Connor Ogilive out of the team. It doesn’t mean to say the kid wouldn’t be as good, if not better, from where he has come from, but it was not to be from us on the basis that Ogilvie has got so much to bring to the party.

“We have a couple of ideas of other players that we like and those talks have already started happening, our chairman is trying to make that happen for us.”

Gillingham have recently bolstered their forward like with the addition of Dominic Samuel and also brought in young Celtic player Scott Robertson on loan after injuries to Kyle Dempsey and Stuart O’Keefe.

“I need to bring two in,” said Evans.

“When you go to Stoke City in the third round of the Carabao Cup and you can only put five on the bench. It is not made up, it could have been six if Dominic had of passed (his paperwork) in time, but we have got no room for any more injuries. Have that and we will have 12-13 players.

“We have to keep working hard, these things are sent to test you as a manager and what do I do? I get up earlier, I go to bed later, I go to watch more games, I get in trenches and fight.”

Samuel missed out on Wednesday after his medical paperwork wasn’t ready in time, missing the cut off by just 30 minutes.

“We were simply waiting on a sign-off from a consultant on a medical,” Evans explained.

“If you don’t submit that paperwork then you are not covered for your insurance.

“It was no fault of the consultant, he has got emergency work to do that was crucial, saving people’s live etcetera, so we respect that, but I had to tell Dominic at half one that we had missed it, by a matter of minutes.

“He was going to start. It was very disappointing to receive the call from Priestfield to say it hadn’t gone through in time but I knew there was a risk of that happening on Monday.

“I wanted to play Dominic, to get him out on the pitch for 45-60 minutes to start a game and he was desperate to play. It’s disappointing but he has got a lot of football to play for us.”

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