Steve Evans will be looking to lead his team to a seventh consecutive Sky Bet League Two victory as Bristol Rovers prepare to face Tranmere Rovers this Saturday.
It was a big day at the Mem last weekend, as Steve Evans marked the signing of a new contract with an impressive 3-1 win over Crawley Town. Ellis Harrison opened the scoring for the Pirates against the run of play, as he fired the ball past Jacob Chapman.
Mees Rijks scored his first goal in the blue and white quarters, after originally missing Joel Senior’s pass, but eventually poked the ball into the net. With ten minutes to go, Louie Watson cannoned in a cross from Louie Copley. This was quickly met with a late strike from Yusuf Akhamrich as he sent a chip over Chapman in the 96th minute.
Speaking to the media before the Tranmere test, Evans is eager to keep the Gas’ excellent run of form going.
Steve, I just briefly wanted to go back to Saturday. I was just thinking, as days go, new deal announced, win, nice bit of sunshine. It doesn’t get too much better than that.
“It was a lot of hard work to get there, of course. The first part that went on was that me ensuring the club stayed in the football league, that was the single most important thing in the whole period.
“Then, maybe for three, four weeks, the Chairman and I have been talking tentatively, obviously, waiting for the day that it would be all good to go and we got that done and then, we had a been bit more serious, spent a lot more time together.
“The rest of our conversations were about what goes on at the football club, and then we were happy to get it done.”
And you’ve been in football for a long time, I wouldn’t say a relief, but is it nice when it is all done and you can really start planning for the next chapter?
“Very much so. I was planning to take over for the next season, it was obviously, as everyone knows, the current squad to decide where they play a part going forward.
“Of course, there are new players to be identified and spoken to and representatives of those players, staffing structures, our pre-season programme could be put in place, the pre-season trip to be put in place.
“So, there’s a whole raft of things that I’ve been working really closely with the board to realise.”
And that’s something that, I’m sure a bit of that work has been done already but has that really stepped up over the last week in terms of making sure you’ve got all of your ducks in a row.
“Very much so. I’ve always planned for the positive side of it. For a long time, you don’t know whether you’re going to be here, obviously I had considerations from other clubs that the people that were looking after me were looking at.
“I closed my mind to it and the day before I signed that new contract, it was pretty much out of touch.
“But I decided from a long way out that if this football club wanted me and the fans wanted me, then I wanted to be here. So, I made my family and everyone aware of that, including our chairman.”
The fact that you’ve got such a good run of form going, we know you said how important it is to keep it going until the end of the season, and I guess particularly to try and get maybe a little bit of history. It’s a very long time since this club last won seven games in a row.
“I think if you consider that it’s 1953, that was the last time the club won seven matches in succession in terms of league fixtures. So, that would be an incredible stat, but I’ve got too much respect for Tranmere Rovers, the manager up there, Pete, who has come there to try and resurrect a team in a slump and try and keep them in the football league.
“We know we’re going further than that, it’s important with Tranmere Rovers that their fans get right behind them. We have a duty, a responsibility and integrity to have the same application that we’ve had when we’ve played Barrow, or we’ve played Crawley in recent times.
“Harrogate of course. I did say to the manager, Harrogate when we left, we’ll play them properly, especially with surprise for the opposition.”
To have a run of games like this, against teams that are right there and with so much to play for, it’s funny how it works out.
“It’s been really tough. We’ve seen it against Crawley last week, where they can throw caution to the wind, on that particular occasion, the opposition scores and breaks the game, but they can throw caution to the wind because these teams have to win.
“I can't tell Pete Wild to do his job in Tranmere, he’s a young man that I’ve got a lot of time for. If we’re playing there and it’s 2-2, I’m taking risks. I’m taking risks to win the game, because a point won’t get you a lot in this situation. Three does.”
Have you felt that your players have had, I wouldn’t say a freedom, but since it’s been absolutely certain, some of them in particular have started to show a different side of themselves.
“I think footballers like to play on their age, don’t they? When we were fighting tooth and nail to win some points, I see more of an edge to the players, I see more of an edge to training.
“A lot of these players have got to know me a bit, but they don’t know the whole me. Any players that don’t apply themselves in the last three are no good to me, it could be the last three, the ultimate three.
“They have to apply themselves every time they’re in a Bristol Rovers shirt. If they don’t, they’ll be told they’re not wanted.”
That’s definitely something to look forward to in the coming years, but Tranmere this weekend. Squad-wise, the same sort of numbers from before? How is it looking?
“We’ve got one or two issues; it’s obviously not rocket science. We’ll make a decision today and Alfie Kilgour, who has been playing with a hernia problem for the best part of two and a half months. To be fair to the kid, he’s got a heart the size of Big Ben, for sure.
“We’ve got a decision, we’ve got a window of opportunity to get places open, and we might even be holding him back for pre-season. Obviously, I’ve got to put an emphasis on being right at Tranmere, but I’ve also looking after us when the season ends.
“Alfie, obviously Clinton, he can train fully back with the squad tomorrow, but he’s looking more positive. Macca’s back in the group, Josh McEachran was training a bit last week and will be back in the group. We’re in a relatively good place.”
