Steve Evans is confident Gillingham’s latest recruit will be a hit when fit.

Mustapha Carayol won a deal at the Gills having impressed on trial and he came off the bench on Saturday after the club completed the paperwork in time for the season opener.

Carayol, 32, helped keep the pressure on Lincoln City in the closing stages of Saturday’s game and had a couple of chances - chances Evans feels he would have taken if fully up to speed.

Speaking about his new recruit, Evans said: “He is a great player, more of a wide player who gets at people and takes people on and he did that a couple of times.

“He's had very few minutes, a couple of training sessions, a little spell at Leyton Orient and then at Norwich, and it was a very tiring week, but you can see he had a couple of shots, one got blocked and one went just wide. In three or four weeks he will stick them in.

“He has real quality, he was talking the same way after, he was frustrated about his lack of quality and that comes from lack of pre-season, minutes and action.

“I think he will do a great job for us. There will be a few full-backs who won’t want to see him.”

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