Steve Evans felt gutted after Bristol Rovers fell to a 3-2 defeat to Chesterfield in Sky Bet League Two, but was pleased to see the fight and determination from his side.
In a five-goal thriller that went both ways, the Spireites gained the lead inside four minutes when Tom Naylor headed in the opener from close range. The Pirates avoided conceding again in a dominant start for the visitors before two goals from Shaq Forde turned the score around.
However, Naylor got another to level the score before James Berry came off the bench to get the fifth and final goal, helping the visitors to all three points in a dramatic affair.
It was not the perfect end to the week Evans would have wanted after back-to-back victories at The Memorial Stadium. The Head Coach reflected on the performances and the moments that proved to be pivotal with BRTV...
Steve. A game that went both ways, but overall, an end in defeat. How do you reflect on that?
“Yeah, I'm disappointed. Listen, I didn’t think we started the game well. For the first 20-25 minutes, I think we looked tired. Probably a repercussion of the efforts that the boys put in last Saturday and Tuesday, because we had to go to the wire to win both of them. I think Chesterfield were far better than us for the first 25 minutes.
“The goal was a poor goal for us to concede. We lost the man in the middle of the goal; it was just a simple defensive error. The boy has put his hand up in the dressing room, and then we got the goal back. It was a well-worked goal and a good header from Shaq; it’s all to play for. Second half, we were good, we tweaked it a little bit, and we went in front.
“We bring Joe [Quigley] on, he wins a great header down, and Shaq does what Shaq does. Scores. Then our defence for the second goal was horrendous, really. We’re in the middle of our box, we’re not marking anyone, we’re marking space. Space has never scored a goal, and so, Kofi Balmer’s left to deal with two at the back post.
“That was the winner; it was a good finish. The one before that, the equaliser, had come off his shoulder, I think. He’sheaded it, and it’s come off his shoulder. So, we were poor for 25 minutes. They’re the best we’ve played, in my opinion, since I’ve been here. They’re a good side. We went toe to toe with them.”
You mentioned the slow start there. Maybe in previous weeks or months, it gets worse, but it was a really good reaction from Rovers and two great goals from Shaq as well.
“Listen, the boys have given us everything they’ve got; they're fighting. We had to make some changes; some were enforced, young Fabrizio has been ill all week since he woke up on Wednesday morning, and the kid has been ill. He ran himself into the ground for us, so that was an enforced change.
“Then Ryan de Havilland was just feeling his groin a little bit at half-time, so we said, ‘let’s just see how it goes,’ and we just decided to make the change, but originally, I thought we did well in there.
“The changes we made, in large part, affected us positively, but you have to defend properly; if you defend properly, we get something today. If not, a win.”
You mentioned Shaq in previous interviews. Out of the positives you can take today, how happy are you for him to get a brace?
“I’m delighted. I think he’s done a lot better than today. I think today was one of his poorer games. The difference with Shaq Forde now is that he’s working as hard as he possibly can, good game or bad game, or good game and not so good game.
“Young Yusuf [Akhamrich], I think it was a game too far. I did think, Wednesday and Thursday, about making him a late introduction; he tried his hardest. He’s a kid, but to come in with the intensity of Newport and all that went around him with the goals and then the same in midweek and then to ask him to go out again today. But we have a clear week now, sothe boys will get fresh. We’ll get on the training ground, and we’ll try to prepare for a difficult game at Cambridge.”
Joe Quigley got the assist for that goal, almost immediately after coming on. Does that show everything that he’s going to bring to the side?
“Well, I just spoke to Paul Cook, who said in his opinion, it should be three penalties for us on fouls against Joe Quigley. He doesn’t get them. Today, if we defend better, we possibly do win the game, so, you know, it’s a lesson. Harbottle and Kilgour have been very good for us, but they need to be better than they were today.”
Moments decide games, when you go 2-1 up, all the momentum and the crowd are in Rovers’ favour. So, how disappointing was it that two minutes later, the ball was in your net?
“Yeah, listen, it comes a long way. It comes a long way into the box, and we don’t deal with it, and that’s disappointing from our point of view, but you have to be able to regroup and control it.
“We didn’t control the controllables; we let that run away from us. So, what was going to be a really good week ended up as an average week, in my opinion."
Finally, you mentioned the week. It’s not the perfect ending that you wanted, but you got six points out of that, and also the fans feel like they’re completely on your side as well. It feels like a completely different stadium.
“The fans were brilliant today. They’ve been brilliant every day since I walked in. Every game they’ve come, home and away, they’ve been brilliant. I’ll take six out of nine in the next three, that’s for sure. The wonderful thing is, we’ll go to Cambridge, and we’ll be really fresh.
“We’ve got players on the pitch today, and the other one I wanted on was young Thompson-Sommers; he didn’t go on. We were thinking at one point of bringing him on and taking Sparkesy out. He didn’t have his best game either.
“But you know what, I’m talking about individuals not on their best game, but I’ll tell you what, they’re all giving everything for the shirt and the badge. Am I disappointed today? I am on the floor.
“But wake up tomorrow, I think my team’s given me everything. Paul Cook just said it, he said, ‘I know it was ten men earlier in the season, but it's a different Bristol Rovers team now.’ It’s a Bristol Rovers team that’s different in large because we’re fighting more and we’re going to win more.”
