Gills boss confident the league table will look very different once all of his players are fit.
Gillingham manager Steve Evans was bitterly disappointed with Portsmouth’s sucker-punch goal which left his injury-hit Gillingham side with nothing to show for their fearless effort on Saturday.
Despite the heart-breaking finale to such a positive performance, Evans couldn’t conceal the pride he had for the players who gave everything and more for the Gills badge.
“I’m immensely proud of the effort, passion and work rate that we got out of the team against Portsmouth,” Evans said after the loss. “I feel for the players. Based on chances, we were the best team. The manner of how we lost was disappointing; the best team got beat.
"I’m not going to go on about the players we had missing because I want to give credit to the players who did play. Some of the passing and moving and link play was excellent. This is a hard one to take; we didn’t deserve the one point, we deserved to win. If you didn’t think we deserved to win then you were watching the game with the back of your head. The performance we gave was the best we have given in a long, long time.
“I’m proud of the players and the youngsters who have come in to support us. I’m proud of how the first team have received them; we are as one. I have to give praise to my players and the Portsmouth players, they kept going and got the goal and that’s what you do when you are trying to grind results out. We will take the pain and we will go again.”
The Gills, who are without a fixture this weekend, return to action against table-toppers Rotherham United on Tuesday December 7th. Evans will be expecting more of the same from his men, with, fingers-crossed, a more satisfying finish.
He said: “The break in fixtures gives some of the boys who are out a chance to get fit. I don’t think you will see Oliver, Dempsey or Tutonda back after this break. We will come back and see what we have got. We will have some time to freshen our minds and bodies. My job is to get as many players back before the Christmas period.
"We will be significantly better once the injured players are back. That table only shows 20 games played, I’m telling you now, it will look very different after 46 games.”