Gillingham manager Steve Evans hasn’t given up on his attempts to add extra fire-power to the squad.

The transfer window closed on Monday night for contracted players but free agents are still able to sign for clubs and that will be Evans’ focus once Friday night’s game against Lincoln City is out of the way.

Vadaine Oliver and John Akinde are the main strikers at his disposal with Dominic Samuel out injured and unlikely to be returning any time soon. Jordan Graham and Tyreke Johnson give him options but he would still like to bring in an out and out striker.

Evans said there were talks with two forwards before the deadline but the figures didn’t stack up.

“We couldn’t quite get there with the numbers,” he said.

“We have had a good window, when you consider what we’ve done and who we brought in but we are still very light.

“Players that have severed their contracts elsewhere in the last week or so might suddenly come onto the market. We will see what players are in that position.

“We are still a couple of bodies light. I never asked for approval on a few deals because they just got too rich for us, that was me, not the chairman.

“We are a club that have the smallest resources in the league but with those resources we have we pay the players. There were a lot of clubs that missed pay-day last Friday and are scrambling around this week, we are not one of them.

“We know we are still light up top. We have had to play Jordan up there recently and he’s a wide player but we are still hopeful. There are one or two we know about and we will pick that back up after the weekend, because that is when those lads want to do it. We will see if we can get some interest.”

With numbers light the Gills weren’t in a position to entertain any of their forwards leaving.

He said: “It is okay people phoning up and asking about John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver but that was never going to be an option. We have to strengthen in that area but we must only do so if there is a player who will bring something to the group.

“A number of players were put to our chairman, the chairman spoke to me about them, but no, they weren’t good enough. We need players who can challenge and improve what we have got. Sometimes that can be difficult, challenging and improving what we have.

“The two we did get to speak to proved too expensive, simple. We can’t put this football club in any more jeopardy when we have worked so hard since the pandemic.

“The chairman has had sleepless nights and has got it on a footing where it is in good shape. We must continue to spend within our means and not be one of the half a dozen clubs that haven’t made the wage bills for January.”

Injured striker Samuel isn’t likely to be back in contention until the final few weeks of the season and only earlier if he manages to get ahead of his rehabilitation time-scale. Evans is planning the remainder of the season without him.

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