Gillingham's game against Southend served as a valuable bonding exercise.

New Gills signing Alex Jakubiak met his new team-mates for the first time just before the match and others were unfamiliar too.

Mark Marshall was playing after just a brief training session infront of the fans on Thursday.

Report: Gills 1 Southend 1

Despite the unfamiliarity of some of the players, the Gills management team were happy with the outcome.

Assistant boss Paul Raynor said: “Mark Marshall only trained for half an hour on Thursday, the hottest day of the year. We didn’t have much chance to work with Mark.

“Alex, or AJ, the new boy, he was sat on the motorway for three hours to try and get here for the game so that was a bit unfair on him, but he just needed some minutes with us, to get to know him.

“He hasn’t even had a session with us but it was important he got out there, got to know the guys and it was a little bit off the cuff but he showed some nice touches and he is only going to get better.

“These games are about learning about each other, combinations etcetera, but there were a lot of pleasing aspects.

“It was a good game, it was enjoyable and another different type of test, more of a League 1 game.

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“For the first 60-70 minutes it was game on. Both sides were trying to play attacking football and there were chances at both ends. The last 20 there was a bit of a lull after both sides made changes, not a lot happened, but on the whole it was another good workout.”

Mandron got the goal, one which delighted boss Steve Evans.

He said: “It was a great goal and what a cross from Stuart (O’Keefe), as good as you would see and that is what Mikael Mandrom can do, it was a fantastic header to get us level.”

Evans added: “We got in good areas and had good possession to go and hurt them second half but we didn’t really do it.

“We brought on three very young players for the last 10-15 minutes and it changed a bit but we are pleased.

“Other boys will get minutes at Stevenage (on Saturday) and then we will start to do some proper work on the training ground ahead of Doncaster.”

Gillingham also played trialist striker Norman Wabo for 20 minutes.

Raynor said: "We saw him against Dartford and knew via his agent that he was available. We watched him against us, he scored a good goal and looked quite lively.

"I think he already has an offer on the table from Dartford and maybe another one or two clubs that are interested. We will have another look at him at some point and then we will make a decision on him as well.

"He has been lively, showed up quite well, but we will wait and see how he does in the next few days."

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