Gillingham will look to end their run of five straight defeats when they face Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday evening.

After a decent start to the new League One campaign, the wheels have well and truly come off for Steve Evans’ side.

October was pretty much a month to forget for Gillingham fans as they saw their side beaten 2-0 at Milton Keynes Dons on Saturday 17th October and within the space of two more weeks, they had lost four more league games, failing to score a single goal.

Defeats to Portsmouth (0-2), Fleetwood Town (0-2), Ipswich Town (1-0) and Sunderland (0-2) followed and left many a Gillingham fan scratching their heads as to where it all went wrong.

There have even been calls in some sections of the Gills support for manager Steve Evans to leave his position.

Knowing his job is under scrutiny and on the worst league run of his career, Evans is expected to send a patched up Gillingham squad to Crewe hoping to return with at least a point and address the slide.

Alex MacDonald will be suspended for the game after his sending off against Sunderland, whilst Joe Lumley is expected to keep his place in goal after signing on loan from QPR.

With Stuart O’Keefe and Jacob Mellis both ruled out for the rest of the season, Gillingham are already light on options and Tom O’Connor is once again expected to miss the game.

For Steve Evans, it’s time for Gillingham to roll up their sleeves and fight for some points:

“The only option is to work hard and fight. I have never lost four or five games in my career, so what do you do?”

“You get in the trenches…. lift the group and we go again. That’s the plan. Have a look at personnel and go on to Crewe, and they’re a very decent side.”

Crewe have their struggles too and will be without youngster Josh Lundstram as he recovers from a fractured ankle, whilst former Gills striker Mikael Mandron looks set to start against his former club.

Ryan Wintle and Omar Beckles will remain out of Tuesday’s game as they recover from COVID-19, whilst Crewe manager has David Artell confirmed  that two more players have contracted the virus and will self-isolate for two weeks.

Gillingham go into the game sitting 17th in League One, two places behind their opponents and another defeat will represent their worst league run for over ten years.