This weekend Gillingham’s Emirates Third Round FA Cup tie propels Steve Evans side into the national spotlight as their tie with West Ham United at Priestfield brings the BT Sport cameras on Sunday evening.
Speaking at this week’s briefing, Evans spoke of his excitement for the tie, but underlined the club’s continued climb up the League One table remains his priority.
“Our bread and butter isn’t the FA Cup,” Evans emphasised.
“It’s League One. We’ve always said that and the work and rewards that they’ve put into the last six weeks is so fully deserved. In the build-up coming into December we said that if you look at the teams we are playing – your Sunderland’s home and away; Ipswich, your Portsmouth’s – they’re not League One clubs and arguably should be in the Championship. Its been tough on us but we are an incredibly fit small group of 19-20 players and they’re dedicated and that’s why come Sunday we could get a real chance.
“Living in the town and walking round, I’ve been feeling the buzz about the game – we’ve still people trying to get two or three tickets for the game when there are literally just the odd ones left and I think it is the first sell out at Priestfield in over a decade. I think its brilliant for Gillingham, it’s brilliant for the Club, the Town, for everyone”.
When the draw was made, the Hammers were managed by Manuel Pellegrini, but he has subsequently been replaced by former boss and Evans fellow Scot, David Moyes.
Evans told us, “What you get with David is that he will be very focused; he will be very strong – they spent I think something like £150 to £160 million pounds in the summer and I want them to field those type of players as I want the Gillingham public to watch the West Ham players that we all watch on Match of the Day every week and test ourselves. He will want a Cup run and now he’s gone in, West Ham won’t go down! But why can’t they win the FA Cup – they cannot win the Premier League, but they can win the Cup and if I were David Moyes, I’d be thinking that way! They’ve got a massive opportunity to be in the next round! But, so have we!
“Jack Bonham summed it up for me when he said that hes never played against a Premier League club in his career ever – and hes now a very established goalkeeper in League One. These days don’t come around every day – yes we have Peterborough and Oxford in the coming weeks, and we know what big games they are for our season but we’ve never played West Ham in the FA Cup before. Just think of how many people here, come Sunday, will have someone who have never seen the Gills play West Ham – its incredible! But that’s the occasion – what we need to do is to play the game, not the occasion.”
“We know that in the back of our minds that if they come and they’re at it, it will be a long night for us. But we also know that it’s the magic of the Cup and if they come in a notch down and we’re at our best,” Evans said shrugging his shoulders, “then that makes it Cup shock time”.
Evans then added, “I couldn’t wake up managing any team in world football not believing that we have a chance. I think you have to first and foremost believe yourself and if I don’t do that and motivate a group of young men who are going to represent this football club on Sunday that they can win – I believe in everyone of them! We must be at our best and we must be error free; we must take our chances when they come along, but we’re capable of that”
“We’re know that ninety percent of our supporters will be in the stadium – they have been fantastic to date and we need them to be even more vociferous on Sunday – and I know that they will be as well. I love the West Ham fans – I’ve watched them over the years; they’re loud and supportive and come out with their anthem. We need our supporters on Sunday – but they need us to perform and give them something to sing about – and give them a chance to believe around the 70th minute that Sunday could be our night but we have to be in the Cup tie (as I’ve said in every Cup tie we’ve ever played) – we need to be in the game to have the chance. I’ll tell you training has been exceptional this week, not because of West Ham but because of people making a case to play on Sunday.
We have everyone fit to play except for Mark Byrne and we’ll miss Mark on Sunday as we’ve missed him in every game so far; the boys are all focused and want to be involved in this game, but that’s been the same in the games against the MK Dons and Rochdale as well.
“Let’s pack Priestfield – make some noise, and who knows what comes next.”