Manager pleased to secure first league win of the season.
Steve Evans was full of praise for his Gillingham side as they beat Morecambe 2-1 at the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Saturday.
It didn’t take long for Evans’ side to spark into action as Mustapha Carayol opened the scoring four minutes in with a thunderous free-kick into the top corner. But it was just eleven minutes from time when the Gills sealed all three points thanks to a no-nonsense penalty from Vadaine Oliver.
The Gaffer praised the squad’s ability to fight and collect points late on in games: “We were running on empty, players like Ryan Jackson, Robbie McKenzie and young Dan Adshead gave us absolutely everything, got in the trenches and fought with us," he said.
"I knew that we would score late on, we were dominating territorially and as soon as I forced Carayol wide and introduced Danny Lloyd, the sub reenergised us at a time when we needed it.”
Carayol’s opening strike stole the show, but Evans claimed that the winger's stunning strike was of no surprise to him: “I’ve managed Muzzy three times, firstly at Crawley Town, I took him on loan to Leeds United and then in the summer he called me and asked if he could play for me again. He’s capable of moments like that, if we look after him in terms of his minutes and build him up properly, I think he’ll be sensational for us.
“He does that in training, both him and Kyle Dempsey were rocketing them in yesterday [Friday] so I didn’t actually mind who took the free-kick.”
Having already welcomed a whole host of summer signings for the opening game against Lincoln City, Evans handed out yet another debut to new signing Dan Adshead who joined the club on a season-long loan deal, and the manager was happy with what he saw from his new midfielder.
“The original plan was to play him for 60 minutes, he had some really good moments today, but I said to him that he needs to move the ball a little bit quicker. I’m sure he’s going to be a really good signing for us.”
Although the boss was happy with the collective performance, he was particularly impressed with Jamie Cumming’s showing between the sticks: “I think he’s made a mistake for the goal but he showed some fantastic maturity to recover from it," the manager added. "He looked very comfortable and he’s got some future ahead of him.”