Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Gillingham boss Steve Evans hopes to turn League 1 on its head.
He’s attempting to transform the Gills from a team fighting at the bottom, to one challenging at the top.
Weekend opponents Doncaster gatecrashed the party last season, reaching the play-offs, and Evans would love to emulate that.
Gills players line up for their official photoshoot just before kicking off their new season
He said: “Money doesn’t always guarantee success, if it guaranteed success Sunderland and Portsmouth would be in the Championship, as oppose to Barnsley and Charlton.
“We are trying to turn it upside down and we are trying to be the Doncaster of last season.
"Grant McCann did a wonderful job there, they probably had a mid-table budget and they made a mid-table budget into a top six one.
“They were very unfortunate in the play-offs last year, they lost to Charlton (in the semi-final). Charlton are in the Championship now but the best team over the two games was Doncaster Rovers. They didn’t win the penalty shootout and that can happen.
“For me, they are the most unfortunate side not to be in the Championship. I think they deserved at least to go to Wembley and who knows what could have happened there? We are trying to do a Doncaster."
Evans is confident in his ability to improve Gills’ fortunes but knows there are no guarantees.
“No manager can make promises,” he said.
“Jurgen Klopp (the Liverpool manager) lost two pre-season games and after what I read in the papers he must be thinking he’s under pressure!
“Football brings its own pressures. Paul Scally (the Gills chairman) never needs to tell me it’s not right, I am experienced enough to know.”
If Evans fails, it won’t be for the lack of trying.
He said: “I am sure some days the chairman comes off the phone and says to his family, ‘not him again’.
“Before he took me on he said he wanted me to challenge him, to put him under pressure and to be asking for things. A lot of the time it’s not possible but it doesn’t stop you asking for better things for the players, better players, better training gear, better everything.
"Hopefully we’ll have better performances and results and support.
“The season ticket offer is very generous (at £300). We are way above last year’s total, but what packs out the ground is winning and promotions.
“I remember at Rotherham, playing in an old stadium that was falling down, crowds were less than 2,000, to being packed with 13-14,000 every week and incredible people from South Yorkshire supporting the team they love because the team was doing well and winning."
Evans said on Thursday that he had no fresh injury concerns ahead of the weekend. Injured defender Gabriel Zakuani is still six to eight weeks away from returning while midfielder Matty Willock is playing catch-up with his fitness.
Doncaster have been weakened ahead of Saturday's game after losing striker John Marquis to Portsmouth.
The former Gills loanee has moved to fellow League 1 side Pompey for an undisclosed fee - one that has been reported to be close to £2m - after scoring 61 goals in 134 league games for Rovers.
Marquis scored eight goals in 18 league starts for the Gills while on loan move from Millwall, during the second half of the 2014/15 season, but the club were priced out of a permanent move.
