Gillingham manager Steve Evans hasn’t any interest in the EFL Trophy but his players have plenty of incentive to impress against Cambridge United on Tuesday.

The Gills are away to the League 2 club in the second round of the Trophy competition and places are up for grabs ahead of the weekend league match at Doncaster.

Evans’ men beat Swindon Town on Saturday but the performance was unconvincing as two games in quick succession took its toll. Any standout performers at the Abbey Stadium this week could play themselves into a bigger role at Donny.

Evans said: “We have proven as a management team that we don’t care about reputation. We just pick on form. If they deserve to play they will play.

“The wonderful thing is the players in the dressing room know about it. Players can come in from nowhere and play, like Akinde and McKenzie. We pick players on form.”

One player who will be keen on getting involved more is Trae Coyle, the Arsenal loanee who scored when he came off the bench on Saturday.

He is almost certainly going to start on Tuesday night, looking to make another good impression.

“He will come into our thoughts to play,” said Evans.

“I think there will be 10 changes. We know we need to be fresher at Doncaster and what a wonderful opportunity for the nine or 10 who haven’t been getting a lot of football to turn up at Cambridge and produce a performance that starts them at Doncaster.”

The Gills won through a tough group stage with a win over Crawley and a point against Arsenal’s youngsters. Evans has always said he wasn’t interested in progressing but finds himself with another game to play in what is already a hectic schedule.

He said: “I got a call from our media department to say we had gone through and it was probably the most muted response they have had given it was good news.

“I imagine Cambridge will play full strength, they will want to make progress, but we have to do what is right for our agenda, nobody else’s.

“We want to have a good progressive season in League 1 and I want to be challenging with the smallest resources and a very small squad, it is gifted and young.

“We will do what we need to do on Tuesday. It holds no interest but when it comes to 7.45pm it will be no different, we’ll want to win and that means I will be getting plenty of stick!”

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