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Accrington Stanley 0 Gillingham 1: Manager Steve Evans reacts to victory over promotion-chasers

Gillingham manager Steve Evans said the team he named on Saturday was his best yet this season and they rewarded him with a win.

The Gills led 1-0 at the break and could have had more before Accrington came back strong in the latter stages of the game. Evans’ men hung on to claim maximum points and end a run of three straight defeats.

Evans included new signings Olly Lee and Callum Slattery in the starting line-up and said: “It is the strongest team we have out since the start of the season.

“You only have to look at our bench. Our bench was strong. We had the young man (Tyreke Johnson) who we brought in from Southampton, we had big John (Akinde), Matty (Willock), Stuart (O’Keefe), good players on the bench and that is a sign that you’ve got good players on the pitch.

"If we work that hard we will win games. We were outstanding, particularly the first hour.

“We had different options on the bench. We know we are still light with two or three bodies but we will work hard on that. That is the most comfortable I have felt going into a game, probably in months, where I expect my team to have a good performance.

“We’ve had some very good performances for 45 minutes or an hour in games this season, Rochdale was an exception, and that was another one of those.

"We were disappointed at the turn that we weren’t further ahead, that was a concern, because we know what John Coleman and Jimmy Bell (the Accrington manager and assistant) do, you know what their players are like, they are winners, great lads.

“We withstood a bit of pressure last five or 10 minutes but equally we could have been 3-0 at half time.

“We should have beaten Burton the week before, it was total domination second half and talking to John Coleman after the game, he had watched the re-run and he couldn’t believe it had finished 1-0 to the opposition. My answer was 'yes, but for 45 minutes of the first half we weren’t at the races.' We were at the races for 90 minutes (on Saturday).

“I think we defended really well but we should have put the game to bed in the first half, we dominated for long spells, you know Accrington are going to have a spell in the game, they throw caution to the wind, they almost just leave one back and in that last five minutes the boys defended it.

“We will take those three points, we know how hard it is to get them, you have to earn it because they are a terrific side.”

Report: Accrington 0 Gillingham 1

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