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Sport

Gillingham manager Steve Evans' reaction to the 1-1 draw against Bristol Rovers

By: Luke Cawdell lcawdell@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 22:00, 17 September 2019

Updated: 16:55, 18 September 2019

Gillingham manager Steve Evans wasn’t happy with his team’s first half showing at Bristol Rovers but felt they did enough to win in the end.

A shot from Mark Byrne deep into stoppage-time might have handed them maximum points but that was deflected agonisingly wide.

Scroll down to hear from Gillingham boss Steve Evans.

Gillingham manager Steve Evans at Bristol Rovers Picture: Ady Kerry (16830218)

Report: Bristol Rovers 1 Gillingham 1

Tom O’Connor had already levelled the scores after being a goal down at the break.

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Evans said: “I think we left two points in Bristol, that’s my overriding feeling, but I suppose Graham Coughlan (the Bristol Rovers manager) might have a different view.

“I wasn’t happy with the first half and I think everyone in the tunnel and the dressing room area heard me but I was really pleased with the second half.

Action between Bristol Rovers and Gillingham Picture; Ady Kerry (16830222)

“We changed one position at half-time and we changed the shape and as soon as we did that we were totally dominant.”

Rovers held the advantage after scoring late in the opening half.

“We backed off the kid too easily,” Evans said.

His side got back on level terms with a goal from Tom O’Connor.

Tom O'Connor makes a clearance Picture: Ady Kerry (16830220)

The Gills boss added: “We’ve equalised and then had enough excellent positional play in and around their box and it’s not very often you hear the Bristol Rovers fans quiet in the shed end, but they were deadly silent because they didn’t want to see their team get beat.

“I said to the players at half-time we have to believe. We had a water break and changed the system second half. We said to them, ‘just go out and play, if we lose, we lose’, We told them to get on the ball and express themselves.

“When we scored we had one against their two on the halfway line because we are going to commit people forward to score a goal.”

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