Gillingham face another of League 1’s promotion-chasers tonight but boss Steve Evans expects Peterborough to be a tougher challenge than Charlton.

The Gills overcame Charlton at The Valley on Saturday and now tackle a Peterborough United side who are level on points with second placed Hull City in the standings.

Gillingham have struggled for wins at home against the leading sides but Saturday's victory at Charlton showed what they are capable of. Evans will be hoping for another good result when they play Peterborough at Priestfield.

“These are top teams,” said Evans.

“I have watched Peterborough twice in the last few days (seeing them beat Crewe and Ipswich at London Road), they are a decent side and they will be a big threat at Priestfield.

"We need to be on our guard and we are stepping up when we play Peterborough on Tuesday, in my humble opinion.

“We know for us to beat Peterborough would take a monumental effort but we will have a game plan. We had a game plan against Charlton and we had done a lot of studying of their performance at Rochdale. A member of the first team staff had gone up to watch that performance. With some of the things he saw we worked on and got the benefits.

“We will do that with Peterborough but we don’t kid ourselves, we have two home games at Priestfield in five days, Peterborough and then Bristol Rovers, two big and powerful clubs in League 1 with big powerful resources.”

Evans, whose home is on the outskirts of Peterborough, was manager there prior to his time at the Gills, given the sack despite being in promotion contention.

He holds no grudges and is full of praise for the financial backing the Peterborough board give their managers.

Evans said: “Darren Ferguson (the Peterborough manager) has had every resource possible given to him by the chairman, but so did I, there is no he did and I didn’t.

“They are a fantastic club with fantastic resources. They make it happen when you want a player and they did with me.

“I don’t hide it, they are a terrific club and have absolutely phenomenal owners, the chairman Darragh (MacAnthony), Randy (Thompson) and Jason (Neale), they are great people and they gave me an opportunity with my hometown club.

“When I am finished with football I will be down at London Road supporting Peterborough United, that is in my heart, but do I want to beat them on Tuesday? Of course I do.

“It is an opportunity for us to get back to back wins which would be really good. We played Lincoln (losing 3-0) in really good form and just certain things, big calls went against us. Some big calls went against us on Saturday but we managed to get through it.”

While the Gills ran out 3-2 winners at Charlton, Peterborough’s game at Blackpool was called off because of a frozen pitch which means they will be fresh for the midweek match, which kicks off at 6pm.

Evans added: “Peterborough are fighting for top two and they will see results went in their favour at the weekend. Hull (in second) got beaten, Doncaster got beat up at Sunderland. Both Lincoln (the leaders) and Darren Ferguson will have had a smile.”

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