Evans believes on-loan Southampton defender O’Connor will have bright future

Posted Wednesday, September 18, 2019 by PA

Steve Evans predicted a bright future for Tom O’Connor after the Southampton loanee grabbed a late equaliser to earn Gillingham a point at Bristol Rovers.

Rovers took a 38th-minute lead when striker Tyler Smith was allowed to run unchallenged into the Gills’ box and sidestepped Connor Ogilvie before lashing a low drive past Jack Bonham from 15 yards.

But Gillingham were rewarded for late pressure seven minutes from time. Substitute Mark Marshall crossed from the right and, although Anssi Jaakola parried Ogilvie’s volley, O’Connor was on hand to net the rebound from close range.

Boss Evans said: “That was Tom’s first League goal and he deserved it the way he played. He only has a handful of appearances under his belt, but if he works hard he is going to be a very good player.

“He comes from an Irish family, who insist on those standards, so I’ve no doubt he will make the most of his ability.

“I wasn’t happy with the first half. But the second half pleased me and in the end I feel we have left two points behind.

“The crowd here can be loud and have given me plenty of stick over the years. But tonight we kept them relatively quiet, which says a lot about how we played.

“We restricted Rovers to few chances and in the closing stages had enough of our own to win the game. We have a lot of young players, who are learning, and a small squad to work with.”

Gillingham had to replace Barry Fuller because of a knee problem after only 13 minutes, while Rovers lost skipper Ollie Clarke, who limped off on 54 with a hamstring injury, and right wing-back Josh Hare, stretchered off on 73 with a damaged knee.

Rovers boss Graham Coughlan said: “We will have Josh assessed and know more tomorrow. Ollie was feeling his hamstring when he came off, but it shouldn’t be too serious.

“I am feeling frustrated because it is two more points that have slipped away. We didn’t create enough, but looked solid until a couple of positional errors by players cost us a goal.

“It’s five points from the last nine and last season we would have been happy enough with that. Now we feel disappointed, which is a measure of how far we have come.

“In the end a draw was fair enough tonight, but we feel we should have seen the game out. It was good to see one of our strikers on the scoresheet again and there were plenty of positives.

“I couldn’t be happier with the group in terms of the effort they put in to trying to improve. We are not the finished article, but we are getting there.”