Alex MacDonald knows you can’t write a Steve Evans team off in the first half of the season.

Gillingham suffered a setback with a 2-0 home loss to Wigan on Saturday and ended the weekend sitting 18th.

It was a frustrating afternoon for Evans' Gills team after being in the game for long periods before conceding a crucial first goal on 64 minutes.

MacDonald said: “When you are going up against the so-called big boys of the league they have quality in abundance, everyone could see that in Wigan, with who they had in the team. We will look at the mistakes and where we went wrong and look to rectify it as soon as possible which will give us a better chance against the bigger teams.

“We are taking each game as it comes, but you have seen over the years a team can go on a run and put some results together.

“Steve Evans’ teams historically always get stronger and always come into it. I have worked with him at previous clubs and I know exactly how he always seems to have a good January (transfer) window an then kick on from there. Fingers cross that will be the same again this year.

“We are not looking too far ahead and we are not looking over our shoulder, we know how good we are and if we keep putting in solid performances and clean up on a few things then we will be absolutely fine.”

Gillingham are up against Wycombe next weekend - a team who dropped out of the Championship last season - followed by Sunderland at home - a team who are sitting second behind Wigan in League 1.

The Gills know they are capable of getting something from those games.

MacDonald said: “We can take a lot of heart from (Saturday) in terms with how solid we were and we just need to improve a bit more on our decision making.

“I thought we let ourselves down a bit.

“We need to eradicate mistakes. We made mistakes and have been punished by a top team.

“The fine margins against these top teams are what count and whatever happens in both boxes.

“Wigan did have a lot of the ball, but a lot in their defensive or middle third, without really hurting us, but if you make errors and don’t track runners you are going to get punished against the top teams in the league.

“Over the last five or six games, certainly since I have been playing and not watching, it has felt better, more solid, like we are going in the right direction but I thought we were poor on the ball (on Saturday) and with our decision making. On Tuesday (in a win at Cambridge) we got our first pass off well and that settled us down well. We gave them the ball back too cheaply and when you do that against tough opposition it is going to be a problem.

“We certainly feel we are making strides, we are stronger, more of a settled side, fingers crossed we continue to improve, learn from our mistakes and make sure we go on and put in good performances week in, week out.”

More on the Gills;

• Report: Gillingham 0 Wigan 2

• Reaction: 'We warned them'