Gillingham’s challenge this season has got harder and their first opponents of the new campaign are tipped to be up there challenging for promotion.

Gills boss Steve Evans brackets weekend opponents Lincoln City among the big spenders in the division and they head to Priestfield having missed out on promotion last season after losing the Wembley play-off final against Blackpool.

Speaking about the challenge ahead, Evans said: “They are a big spending team now aren’t they? That is a reality. They can kibosh it under the carpet but they are. They have signed some wonderful players and they will make it really tough for us.

“I see they are one of the early favourites for automatic promotion, that is how tough our challenge is, but what do you do when you face tough challenges? You get up and fight.

“We will ask our boys to fight on Saturday. The boys worked hard on Tuesday at Norwich and hopefully they will work just as hard on Saturday.

“Can we beat Lincoln? Yes. Will it take a monumental effort and a bit of luck at times? Will it take our special players to turn up with special moments? Yes. Will it take our goalkeeper to make big saves? Yes.

“They are full of wonderful players with an outstanding coach in Michael Appleton and David Kerslake (the former Gills no.2) as assistant, they have wonderful training facilities all built for them, they have no excuses but to challenge.”

Lincoln are expected to bring a decent following down to Priestfield for Saturday’s League 1 opener and Evans will be looking forward to hearing the Rainham End back in full voice, having had a little taster when Millwall paid a visit in pre-season.

Evans said: “We need a busy Priestfield and the Rainham End in full voice. I am told Lincoln are bringing an almost full allocation and that doesn’t surprise me, they will be travelling on the basis that they think they can compete with the top boys for promotion.

“We are just trying to win three points on Saturday, that’s all we are trying to do, and then we can think about making changes for Crawley in the Carabao Cup.”

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