Steve Evans has been speaking about the support that his side has received from the Priestfield faithful this season at a time when the Coronavirus has called a halt to Gillingham’s Play Off campaign.
In tribute to the clubs disappointed supporters, the manager said, “The fans here are fantastic – they are our 12th man. I’ve said it many times – I know that we lost the last one late here, but we’ve won lots of games here late; we’ve won lots of games here dominating the second half when we’ve got ourselves on the front foot. We’ve got the supporters off their seats a little bit, they can applaud themselves and should applaud them.
“We should applaud our supporters for how good they’ve been. We need to do it together – you can’t do it individually not an individual player, or groups of players. I’ve said many times that supporters are the life blood of any club, they own the club really – without them there is no-one and we all hope to see football this weekend.
“I think the bond has been strengthened by the way most of the players live in Gillingham or nearby – even the loan players we’ve had move into the town – the players are seen around the town, they live and breathe it and they feel the emotions of the supporters and I certainly do.
“I’m in here five, six days a week – its massively important to me; you feel it, you live it; you breathe it and there is no doubt that there has been a coming together on and off the pitch this season, but we’re now coming into the real test at the end of the season.
“We’ve got nine games left to play – can we get ourselves the six points with six to go with four at home – it’s a big ask, but I’d back us if we can. You only go into the Play Offs to win them – I don’t know what it’s like to fail in a Play Off campaign – it changes from League football to cup-tie football. Its quite simple really isn’t it – home and away with the winners going to Wembley.
“We’ve got some good players – we’ve got some players that make up for what you would say ability with their effort and their commitment and their passion, it’s cup tie football, so if we get into the Play Offs, we’ll win the Play Offs. I don’t care who we play, we’ll win – we’ll beat them, and we’ll win.
“There’s probably one or two of the bigger clubs in our league at the minute who won’t mind if we continued playing behind closed doors – having no home support in as they’ve been too negative about them at the moment! But we’re not on that front – we’re on a more positive front than that at the moment – if we go without spectators, it’ll be “new”; it will be “original” – these are unprecedented time.”