Gillingham chairman Paul Scally has spoken of his disappointment at having so many players currently out injured.

The club hit new depths squad wise on Tuesday night when Max Ehmer (dislocated shoulder) and John Akinde (hamstring) joined the every lengthening injury list at The Gills.

With the pair set to be out for some weeks and Ryan Jackson suspended for Saturday’s League One trip to Fleetwood Town after being sent off during Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss at Rotherham United, manager Steve Evans may now only have about eleven professional players for the weekend.

Dipping into the youth team to make up the numbers seems certain once again and Paul Scally has spoken of his frustration at how many injuries the club have had in recent weeks, telling BBC Radio Kent:

“Like everyone else that loves and cares about the club, I’m bitterly disappointed and very frustrated.”

“We actually started the game (at Rotherham) pretty well, we were 1-0 up, the first half hour we were reasonably comfortable.”

“Unfortunately the keeper made a bit of a hash of a fairly simple shot and that put us one all and it was difficult after that.”

“I don’t think we particularly ever outplayed as such, albeit when you’ve got ten first team starting players out injured, two on loan and one no longer with us, it puts us under huge pressure with what’s available.”

“Last night we had three teenagers in the team, John Akinde got injured as well last night, Max Ehmer after ten minutes got injured with a dislocated shoulder and ended up in hospital and Ryan Jackson got suspended so we played the last twenty minutes with ten men.”

“Even before Jacko went off we were 3-1 and playing some good football.”

“I’m really proud of the players that were out there as they gave everything.”

“There is no doubt in my entire time at Gillingham Football Club and in fact in my entire time watching football, I’ve never known a team with ten first team players injured at any one time. It’s unprecedented.”

When asked whether the club had got the right strategy back in the summer by having a smaller squad than recent seasons, Scally admitted it was a strategy designed by manager Steve Evans:

“We had 24 registered players and under the League One and League Two protocols and that is the number of players you can have registered over 21.”

“We didn’t have less players if you like. The strategy of the manager, which was agreed by me, or his proposal was that we would have better players and less of them, we went with 24 players and that should have been enough.”

“He (Steve Evans) was comfortable with letting two players go out on loan, but he doesn’t have a crystal ball and could never have anticipated having so many senior players injured at one time.”

“Any club in football, even if it was Manchester City, if they had twelve players out injured, or ten players out injured and one suspended, that would challenge them as well.”

“If we’d had a crystal ball, we would probably have done something different back in August, but you can not plan for so many injured players at any one time.”

Scally went on to almost give under fire Evans the dreaded vote of confidence, stating that he didn’t feel anyone else could do better with the current situation:

“He can only pick the players that are available to him. You could have Pep Guardiola running Gillingham Football Club and he would still have the same situation.”

“He would still only be able to pick the best players that are still available and if he had these injuries, and they’re all different injuries, they’re not short term injuries most of them, you can only pick what you have available and we have to go into the youth team and last night we had to play three youth team players.”

“He’s frustrated, we’re all frustrated, everyone at the club is frustrated and when you have people that are frustrated, they get agitated by the situation, supporters, staff, myself, the management, the players themselves.”

“The spirit in the camp is very good, the players, they are all together, they are desperately trying to win these games and everyone that cares about the club and has watched the games so far this season has seen some really unlucky stuff.”

“We’ve been dominating games, we’ve been 2-0 ahead in games, the Portsmouth game was a classic, we dominated the game and lost it by an own goal from Jack Tucker where the ball has bounced off his leg and gone over the keeper’s head.”

“It hasn’t been straightforward, but there are no white flags over Priestfield, I can promise you and anyone that knows about us and knows about the club, knows that everyone will keep fighting, keep working, we’ve got a long time to go, we’ve got 25 games still to play, a lot of playing time, so we just hope we can get the players back, get them back from injury and as quick as possible.”

Asked about whether fans should be worried about the club being relegated come the end of the season, Scally was quick to emphasise the problem with injuries once again:

“Every season there are four clubs that are challenging and get relegated out of League One as there are out of other divisions, but we don’t want to be there at the end of the season.”

“We are there because we haven’t been able to put out anywhere near the strength of side that we have signed on our books and we are all together.”

“The supporters last week against Portsmouth were fantastic, the supporters over the last few weeks that have seen the games have been fantastic.”

“Most people that know and care about the club and that understand football will also be worried about the number of injuries we’ve got and they will also be saying that if we have those injuries back, we actually have a very good squad of players, but you need them back from injury and we are doing everything we can, we’ve got two physios full-time, we’re doing everything we can to get these players back.”

Football is often about momentum and confidence. Right now Gillingham have neither and going into the busy Christmas period with hardly any players and no wins in their last ten competitive outings, things couldn’t look any bleaker.