Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has given manager Steve Evans the green light to do what he needs to do in the January transfer window.

Evans says there are funds left over from the last window and he’s already got the wheels in motion to bring in additions to ensure they have a better second half of the season than the first.

Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy match highlighted the need for better players to challenge those in the first team and there will be additions next month.

Evans said: “I sat with the chairman on Tuesday for the first 20 minutes and he has ticked the box for me to go and do what I need to do. That is within the constraints available.

“We know the players we want and we know the back ups we want if we don’t get them.

“We are not talking about a major overhaul, overall the boys have done brilliant to get where we are, with the main part of the group.”

Evans insists it isn’t a case of one out, one in, but admits some of his summer signings haven’t worked out.

He said: “We will offer players to go elsewhere or whatever it is and if they don’t then they will sit and train and not play.

“We have to do what is right for us, we are not relying on getting rid of players and what we spend only speaks volumes of the dressing room in what we are achieving.

“There is some money, there was some money to strengthen in the last window but we couldn’t get the players leading up to deadline that we wanted.

“We will do our best to get them in, conversations are happening with clubs and players’ agents to see what we can do.

“We will do some business. It won’t be a rash amount of business, we have a wonderful 15-16, it is just the back up that is not producing and they have had every opportunity.

“They have had opportunities to put themselves in the frame. They knew the likes of Dominic were at home (on Tuesday night), Kyle was at home (injured), a couple ill, an opportunity to put themselves right in the frame. What did they do? They slammed the door.

"It is the competition behind that main core where we have been lacking. Some players have come into the football club and they haven’t stepped up. We are now three and a half months in and some of them have not delivered where we need them to be so there is only one answer.

"We want to sign some players that will start, players who are capable of going in and starting a run of games and that should improve the performance of the guys already holding the shirt."

Evans did the same last season, fine-tuning his squad. The likes of Mikael Ndjoli, Ouss Cisse, Lee Hodson, Alex Jakubiak and Bradley Garmston all left in the January. John Akinde, Jordan Roberts, Jordan Graham and Olly Lee were signed. The Gills lost just once in the league after the turn of the year, pushing for the play-offs before Covid-19 struck.

The Gills boss will be confident that new additions will once again give them a boost.

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