Steve Evans wants his Bristol Rovers team to use the momentum they gained from the weekend on Tuesday night when they welcome Walsall to The Memorial Stadium in Sky Bet League Two.
The Pirates returned to winning ways with a superb Severnside derby triumph over Newport County on Saturday, with Yusf Akhamrich's first-half brace giving the Gas all of the control going into half-time before Fabrizio Cavegn added a late third towards the end.
The Gas now face Walsall on Tuesday night, with the game moved to midweek after the Saddlers' involvement in the Emirates FA Cup in January. Matt Sadler's men are sixth in the table and are pushing for promotion this term but have only won one of their previous six league matches, drawing their last three.
Speaking to the media before the contest, Evans previewed the game against Walsall, praised Clinton Mola for his recent performances and delivered an update on Promise Omochere.
WALSALL PREVIEW
“We hope we can use the momentum from Saturday on Tuesday. It will be a very different opponent. This is an opponent that could and probably should have been promoted last season when, in January, they were points clear. The manager there, Mat Sadler, played for me back in my early years at Rotherham, and he was brilliant.
“I wasn’t surprised that he ended up as an assistant, a coach and got the Walsall job. I was heartbroken when they didn’t go up last time. I was heartbroken for him, and we spoke. It will be good to see Mat because we don’t regularly keep in touch, but he’s doing a brilliant, brilliant job.
“I’m mindful of Tuesday, it’s a very different opponent to Newport. The league table tells you that it’s going to be a lot tougher to win the game, and we might have to freshen the side and see where we go in terms of shape and system and deployment of certain players and where they play.”
PRAISE FOR MOLA
“I think we said to the players, if you look at Clinton Mola, who I think has been the man of the match in our last two games, last Saturday at Salford, he didn’t get picked. He was in the stands with a big jacket on.
“But we say to all of our players, be ready because we can bring you in from nowhere. We watch you train. I see with Clinton, he went onto the training ground and trained with such vigour and such professionalism that I said to Paul Raynor at Milton Keynes, he has to come in.
"I thought man for man, minute for minute, he was our best player [against Newport]. That’s hard to say when we’ve seen Yusuf score two goals like that. Yusuf was the match winner, Clinton made us win the game.”
UPDATE ON OMOCHERE
“Promise Omochere should be training on Monday. We would struggle not to have Promise in the group next weekend if he has a full week of training.
"But I had a good heart-to-heart with him in the week and said, ‘We need to be fit, son, you’re paid to play football. He took it on the chin and in two or three days, I'm not saying it made a difference, my chat with him, but it made a difference to him because I also reassured him how vital he was to us and how important he was. He’s got a big part to play. He’s a lovely kid, but I’ve been firm with him over the last ten days.”
