Gillingham’s performance on Saturday was encouraging for the boss but it could have been a whole lot better.

Missed first half chances allowed Doncaster a chance to get back into the game and they did just that.

A goal before the break brought them back to life and it was a real sucker punch for Evans and his boys.

Scroll down to hear from the Gillingham boss

Report: Doncaster 1 Gillingham 1

He said: “I thought we were terrific for 40 minutes and if we had got the second goal we could have won comfortably because that would have sunk them.

“It’s a different feeling when you’ve scored a second.

“We got a real kicking with the goal and I said to the players, you need to go out (second half) and be really strong now. They were always going to have a spell in the game and their best spell came in the last five minutes.

“There was some brilliant defending from Max (Ehmer) and Alfie (Jones).”

Alex Jakubiak got the opener for the Gills, a move that pleased Evans.

He said: “It is three front boys who are involved isn’t it? Brandon (Hanlan) wins the flick on and Mika (Ndjoli) does what he does, he has great strength. He picks a great pass.

“The reason we selected Alex there was because he comes in late and he arrived into the box late and got the goal, it was a great finish. It looks easy but it’s harder to do.

“We then should go two or three ahead, Brandon should have had a couple, there was one off the line, we then go to sleep just before half-time.”

Evans missed the goal as he was returning from his seat in the stands to the changing room, but he watched it back at the end.

“We should do better in the full-back position,” he said.

“Credit to the players though, you could see late on when we were dying for the cause, it meant a lot.”

And the manager had a word of thanks to the fans, with over 600 in attendance.

He said: “They were a bit quiet late on but they knew we were holding on and I think they have seen a determination.

“The team got some great results away from home last season but I have to think that game might have been lost.

“We showed determination to stay in it and had we been more clinical it would have been all over and dusted in 45.”

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