Gillingham boss Steve Evans has again called for the League One season to be played to a finish under exactly the same rules as they started if only for the sake of the competition’s integrity.

Talking about the various suggestions on how to finish the season, the Gills boss admitted, “The bottom line is that over the years, statistics tell you that a team in our position – I’m not saying us, but I think we have a chance – a team in our position always makes the Play Offs, and I heard other managers – Karl Robinson being one – saying the top eight be involved.”

“I’m sure that if Karl was ninth or tenth, he wouldn’t be saying the top eight then! So there’s a self-interest and it takes away the competition – if the League is finishing now, then finish the League and concentrate on the Play Offs teams.”

“If it’s got to be done and it’s beyond all reason and rational that we’ve got to finish then let’s put a plan in place for that and there’s a lot of us affected, but what I would say for the integrity of the competition it has to finish and under “normal” circumstances we’ve got nine games to go, it has to finish and play the nine games.”

“And all my point is that if we don’t by July, we don’t effectively have a problem in the year that we’re having so far, we’ve a problem going forward into next season! So, there will be two seasons that’s a problem to everyone rather than one – I’ve said that I’m not intelligent to work it out.”

“I’d be pretty offended and upset if I’d invested huge sums and the season was finishing, but whatever the decision is made I think a lot of it will come, including the Premier League who have moved their next meeting to Monday, a lot will come from what the Prime Minister says.”

“If you look at France, the Government stepped in and stopped the League and in Holland and even Italy, where they’re keen to finish and my old boss Massimo Cellino has been saying that it’s ridiculous to finish their season when we’re putting lives at risk and we shouldn’t be putting lives at risk.”

“Under the current restrictions, you can’t go to the pub, but people are wanting to put fourteen or fifteen lads celebrating because even if there are crowds there or not, they’ll celebrate a goal, they would certainly still celebrate a win, they’ll celebrate if they get to the Play Offs, they’ll celebrate if they get promoted, it’s then nature of football. So, we have to be very, very careful.”

“I’m not a protagonist and I saw an article ran in a Coventry paper that when I did an article here in Kent saying that if it’s not played in July it should be finished, but it forgot to mention that my first priorities are very clear for everything – I want the season to finish, but I don’t want it to cost any lives…”

Checking in on the Gills squad, Evans told us, “They’re working on their own individual plans although we took them down for two or three weeks as there didn’t seem to be any end goal where it’s going or not going – the focus for them is to recoup mentally and make sure they’re in a good place so that we’ll quickly be up to speed in the two or three weeks that we’ll get and for the sake of the competition, the rules have to stay the same.”

“You have seven substitutes, eleven players – everything has to stay the same for the sake of fairness throughout the competition.”

The Gills boss also confirmed that Olly Lee had returned to Hearts at the end of his loan spell. “Olly was a superb loan signing whose loan was until last Sunday with permission for the play-offs, until the end of May, in the event we finished in the top six. As we still waiting to find out what happens next, we decided he would return to Hearts now. We all wish him the very best of luck, a top professional and great lad.”

Evans went on to explain how he saw games going if there was to be a conclusion to the season:

“The reality is that is has to start and finish with eleven starters, seven subs, home and away, and the only thing that change is that will be missing – and it is a factor – is that there is no crowds! Some stadiums – Sunderland, Portsmouth, Rotherham, Coventry at St Andrews – their fans are all tremendous; ours are at Gillingham, we don’t want neutral venues.”

“But you take the fans out, it’s a big loss to some clubs, and we’d be one of them – it’s a big advantage playing in front of the home support at Gillingham as there is in the clubs in the Championship say at Elland Road or West Brom – they’re huge factors! Take them away it will be different results.”

“I’m not saying that Leeds and West Brom won’t go up, I’m not saying that Coventry won’t win promotion. But in the same token I just look at it and it has to be in the same circumstances as the rest of the season – you take spectators away?”

“Well, if the rest of it is the same, that must be the only way that we can continue. So, it will be interesting what the Prime Minister says at the weekend; when I listen to the medical advisors – one of the ladies – she said that it was unlikely that any big sporting events would be taking place – I don’t think she meant with crowds in either!”

“I’ll take the direction that my Chairman gives me, and if he says that the Football League have voted for neutral venues and therefore that’s where we’re playing, then we’ll play and I will always take his direction as he’s the boss. It’s not my preferred option.”

“I just don’t see the sense of it; for example my teams come to Gillingham; we can have that stadium completely sterile as best we can and then we might not be using it again for another week.”

“I wouldn’t think it right that there was a game on at 12:00, the teams clear off at 3:00 when teams arrive for a 6:30 kick off; how do they turn that ground around? With great difficulty would surely be the answer…”