Gillingham boss Steve Evans joked last weekend that he needed a snowstorm to wipe out some fixtures and part of his wish has come true.

On Thursday the club informed the EFL that they would be unable to fulfil their weekend fixture against Crewe Alexandra due to “a number of positive Covid-19 cases in the squad.”

They had also closed the stadium after an outbreak among office staff.

Gillingham were set to welcome bottom club Crewe to Priestfield on Saturday but manager Evans admitted he would have preferred the arrival of a snowstorm.

His patched up team have failed to take a point from any of their last five League 1 encounters.

The likes of captain Kyle Dempsey, defender Max Ehmer, Norwich loan man Dan Adshead and leading scorer Vadaine Oliver are out injured and Evans - speaking before the club's Covid outbreak - was keen on a break from the current schedule.

The busy Christmas period starts on Boxing Day with games against Ipswich, Charlton and MK Dons filling the festive calendar.

Their home match with Shrewsbury on Saturday, January 8 is also postponed as their opponents are in FA Cup action that weekend.

The Gills boss said: “We need to get from now to January 1 and doing some business (in the transfer market) is crucial.

“The players are aware of my thoughts. We need players out of the treatment room, around that time we should have our better players back and we need to do some business in January. We have never hidden it, we are in trouble here until we get reinforcements in the building.

“We will not be right until the middle of January and we don’t know if we will get the players back on the time scale. We don’t have an accurate assessment of when these players are coming back, despite the chairman reminding us all we have two physios in the building.

“We need a snowstorm to come don’t we, so the games get called off until January! Then we will be fine and win matches.

“We try and keep the positivity in the camp but nobody rings me and lifts me up, the only people that lift me are my family. That is hard to take as well.

“We have to find a way to win between now and January or we will be bottom of the table going into January.”

Gillingham had seven players unavailable last weekend. Ryan Jackson will return from a ban when they next play. The extra weekend off with help the likes of Rhys Bennett, David Tutonda and Ben Reeves who have been rushed back from injury.