Gillingham sack former Mansfield Town manager Steve Evans.

The Gills are in the League One drop zone, seven points from safety, and it was a 13th game without a victor, failing to score in eight of them as well as being hammered 5-1 at Rotherham United.

The Gills put out a statement saying: “Gillingham Football Club can confirm that the contract of manager Steve Evans has been terminated by mutual consent with immediate effect.

“The club wishes to thank Steve for all his efforts over the past two years in circumstances that have been significantly more difficult and challenging due to the Covid pandemic, and wishes him well in the future.

“His assistant, Paul Raynor, will also be leaving the club.

“The search for a new head coach/manager will begin immediately.

“There will be no further comment from the club on this matter.”

Following yesterday’s game, assistant Raynor, who also worked with Evans at Mansfield, admitted the Gills had been well off the pace.

“For 45 minutes we weren’t at the races and didn’t track runners. When you do that against good teams with good players, they punish you,” he told the Gills official website.

“Their manager has gone in there and got a real reaction from them. They played with intensity and quality and moved the ball very quickly. When teams do that, you have to be disciplined.

“You can’t get done by one-twos down the side and then get overloads in the wide areas and don’t track runners in the middle of the goal. That’s just basic football.

“There are no excuses. It was ill-discipline and people not doing their jobs. We weren’t defensively sound and you don’t need to give teams like Ipswich a helping hand.”

Evans quit Mansfield Town to join Peterborough United in February 2018 with the Stags fifth in League Two and only two points off the automatic promotion spots, having taken over at the One Call Stadium in November 2016 – a move which upset fans and owners alike.