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Gillingham ready for away games against Shrewsbury and Accrington

06:00, 22 October 2019

Gillingham hit the road this week and manager Steve Evans knows it will be tough.

They travel to Shrewsbury on Tuesday night and then head up to Lancashire at the weekend to face Accrington Stanley, clocking up close to 1,000 miles over the two fixtures.

Gillingham's Olly Lee goes for goal against Peterborough on Saturday. Picture: Ady Kerry
Gillingham's Olly Lee goes for goal against Peterborough on Saturday. Picture: Ady Kerry

Evans said: “Shrewsbury and Accrington in the space of five days is particularly tough but we just have to make sure we have refuelled the players and make the appropriate changes.

“We are ready to go and we are in a good position.

“The players worked ever so hard (on Saturday) and had we equalised in normal time I think we would have gone on to win it.”

Gillingham played well against Peterborough but were beaten 2-1.

Their midweek trip sees Gillingham face a Shrewsbury team who have neither scored many or conceded many.

The Shrews have netted only 10 goals in their first 12 fixtures, while conceding just 13. They played out a dull goalless draw with Lincoln City on Friday night.

Evans knows they will be difficult to break down.

He said: “I am not going to tempt fate and say they don’t score a lot of goals, but they don’t concede many, only 10 all season and they have been terrific.

“I don’t know if the manager will change what he does but he tends to go with a three/five at the back and it is very effective for them. They have some gifted players.

“That will be tough and any team that goes up to Accrington, as Ipswich faced on Sunday, they have to earn the right to win a football match.

“These are two really tough games for us.”

Barry Fuller missed out for the Gills again at the weekend through injury. Aside from long-term absentee Matty Willock, he is the only injury doubt.

For Evans, he will be keen for a positive result after losing to his former team Peterborough at the weekend - a city he lives in.

He said: “I was personally disappointed because it is your old club and you always want to beat your old club, don’t you? Everyone does.

“I just wanted to win the game but I still had love for Posh in the morning.

“The objective now is to get ready for Shrewsbury and I hope that whoever Posh play Tuesday they will win again because I want them to be in the Championship.

“They are a wonderful club. They are blessed with talent and we wish them well. The least their manager and their staff know is that my team will compete with every team competing with them at the top end, and everyone beside us in the league as well.”

Read more: All the latest sports news in Kent

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