Gillingham are back on the brink of the play-off places but boss Steve Evans knows there are some tough battles ahead before Christmas.

The manager - who was disappointed with the midweek EFL Trophy performance at Cambridge - is confident of a better second half of the season and hopes to be in the mix at the turn of the year. A win over Swindon Town on Saturday leaves them four points off the top six.

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Evans - who was nominated for League 1 manager of the month for November - said: “All we have to do is to try and keep winning games and where that takes us we will find out in time but we have given ourselves a little shout.

“We are on the cusp of the play-off places now and coming up to a tough run of games. We have to go to Doncaster (on Saturday) which is going to be really tough and then Accrington and the job their manager John Coleman is doing is outstanding. He is producing a team that challenges out of nothing.

“We have got a tough two or three games coming up so we need to be ready.”

Coleman took the November League 1 manager of the month accolade but Doncaster are next up for the Gills, however.

Evans said: "Darren (Moore) is a good manager and how he got the sack at West Brom was beyond everybody in football, but maybe that was political. He has gone into Doncaster and carried on the great work from Grant McCann and has a real good side put together.

"I watched a rerun of their win at Northampton (on Saturday), it was very comfortable. We will be fully tested but we will have a plan.

"There are fractions in League 1 every week, whether it’s going to Bristol who have won a couple of times since we went there and won comfortably and look at Swindon, they will win games. It is fine margins.

"Doncaster are a team that will compete for automatics, not just the play-offs."

Gillingham have won their last two league games 2-0 and Evans said: “It’s two clean sheets and we have taken nine out of nine in the league (from the last three), four (wins) out of five and that’s commendable but let’s be ready for Doncaster.

“We are not the best side in League 1, I don’t think we can be when you compare what we spend to others, but we can work as hard as anyone else in League 1, we can be as organised and we can find a way to win like any other side and we are pleased to win.”

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