Gillingham boss Steve Evans says he picked a defence to nullify the threat of their former striker Brandon Hanlan on Wednesday night and it paid off.

Connor Ogilvie was chosen to partner Jack Tucker at the back and the defensive pair helped ensure Bristol Rovers’ striker Hanlan barely had a sniff of goal.

Evans wanted to keep Hanlan at the Gills in the summer but couldn’t compete with the package put together by his League 1 rivals. Rovers also nabbed captain Max Ehmer but it was the Gills who left the Memorial Ground with maximum points.

Evans said: “You have to give credit to Jack Tucker and Connor Ogilvie, I purposely picked my centre backs, not on the fact that Christian Maghoma didn’t have the best of games on Saturday, I don’t think anyone did, I picked them because they knew Brandon.

“They knew what he is all about, they have trained against him, they know how powerful and strong he is and you could see a real focus in Tucker and Ogilvie’s eyes. They knew they were going out to play against Hanlan, who we love, but credit to them, we never noticed Brandon and he gave us huge plaudits at the end when I gave him a hug. It is credit to those two.

“Brandon is a top class striker for this level, can possibly play the level above and we knew we had to be strong physically with him, we knew we had to deal with wide players who come in very efficiently, and we did that.

“Once we were able to do that it gave us a great base for the likes of Robertson and Dempsey to play and I thought some of their passing and moving was great and our front three caused them all sorts of problems. We had the two big lads (Akinde and Oliver) and an absolutely best performance in a Gills shirt for me, from Dominic Samuel.”

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Reaction: We could have won by more

Report: Bristol Rovers 0 Gillingham 2