Gillingham manager Steve Evans has insisted he won’t bring players into the club for the sake of making up the numbers.

Gillingham were a player short on the bench during Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Blackpool, and also had three teenagers named as substitutes.

Evans, though, would rather trust his youth than bring players in for the sake of it.

“People have seen we’ve bought youth around us” said Evans. “We go with youth.

“(We’ve got) Jack Tucker, Henry Woods, and Joe Walsh as well. They’re 3 kids that will be with us anyway.

“We’d rather fill up with our own youth and players we have to work with and develop rather than take in players that aren’t good enough.

“We have to add to the group selectively and believe we’re improving the group. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to play every week, but they have to be capable of playing every week. There’s no point in us singing a couple of academy kids from an Arsenal or Spurs or whatever and not putting them in the team because they don’t deserve to be.

“We’re desperately trying, but we’ll only try to get the right ones in. We still have another ten, eleven days yet of the window and it’ll come around very quickly. The chairman trusts I’ll only go to him with names that are right for us and will improve on what we’ve got.”

Two players to leave Gillingham in the last week were midfielders Josh Rees and Darren Oldaker, who were both told they were surplus to requirements at Priestfield.

“It’s never been the case that I’ve had to move them out to move them in” said Evans.

“If you look at Josh Rees, he came to me and said he had an opportunity to go back to Bromley, and we knew that for a week before it happened. DJ (Oldaker) came to me as well and said he wanted to play, and if he wasn’t in our immediate plans he wanted to leave.

“These are brave decisions from brave men who sign off their contracts and go away. Josh knew what he was doing, and I think DJ has an idea. They want to play football and that’s commendable. Any young players who’s not playing at any level should want to go and play football.”

Oldaker had been at Gillingham since he was a scholar, and he was a talent rated highly by a lot of Gillingham fans.

Evans feels Oldaker has all the talent, but he just didn’t fit into his system.

“He needs to get himself a bit more mobile” Evans added.

“He’s got terrific feet, terrific vision, and can hit a pass. But the team is built on the front foot and being mobile – we have to be mobile and be around the pitch that’s just our style.

“There are other managers who will love him sitting there getting on the ball and turning over. He’s a talent for whoever signs him and he’s a great lad.”

Evans has been happy with the performances of his side so far this campaign, however The Gills are yet to pick up their first win of the season, and the manager feels there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We’re not close at all” added Evans. “We’ve got a lot of hard work to do.”

“We’re still finding out about players, getting players up to match fitness and sharpness and getting them to the levels (necessary), because we have an identity as a management team of how we like to play. We play with a high press, like a lot of good managers do all the way down the leagues, but you have to have a very fit group to do that in terms of being physically fit, physically sharp, and mentally sharp.

“We’re working hard but we’re making rapid progress getting there. We’re trying to settle the group. Of course we’re very limited on numbers, and I don’t think it’ll be much better for Saturday, but we’ll do what we have to do.”