Steve Evans was disappointed with Bristol Rovers' first-half performance in their 3-1 loss to Crewe Alexandra in Sky Bet League Two.
The Pirates conceded inside the first minute against the Railwaymen, with Jack Lankester curling a left-footed effort into the bottom corner before the winger added his second 20 minutes later from the penalty spot to double Crewe's advantage.
Steve Evans' men made four changes at the break and looked brighter, but already had a tough test to turn the game around before Jordan Gibson added a third just past the hour. Bobby Kamwa lifted a perfect effort from his own half over Tom Booth to get one back, but it was too late to start a comeback.
Speaking to the media after the game, Evans reflected on the performance and highlighted moments of the match that were crucial to the outcome.
REFLECTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
“Well, you can’t concede in 35 seconds, can you? Particularly when you go through a situation where we spend lots of time in the week, and lots of time this morning, as late as half past 12 today, showing players videos of where people go, and the boy Lankester comes in on his left foot; he can finish in there, and we show them an opportunity, and that puts you on the back foot. But at no time do we look threatening, composed, anything in the first half; we looked short of every bit of quality we had.
“The second goal, just the skipper's to blame; he loses a runner. It's a clear penalty. Perhaps you'd give another one as well; he commits a sloppy clearance. Alfie played as I've never seen him play before, just terrible. We had to make the change at half-time.
“Listen, I thought we were very good in the second half. I thought they scored with their only attack of any note in the second half. The complaint being that we didn't make their goalkeeper work. We didn't really make him make some saves.
“We got in great areas, in both wide situations, and failed to deliver, and didn't put good balls into the box, but I thought our play was much more like us in the second half, but we understand the game's hard at two, never mind giving away a third. We're in good possession in the middle of the park with Forde; he tries to meg the boy, they break, and they get a goal completely against the run of play.
“Had it gone two-one, it might have been interesting, but, you know, we'll take our punishment, and we'll take our medicine, and we'll get ready now for Tuesday night."
FOUR HALFTIME SUBSTITUTIONS
“I said to our Chief Executive that I wish I could have done ten. I didn’t think Brad had any chance with the goals. Although his distribution at times wasn't at the level we expect, but he probably got dragged down with the others.
“But, yeah, I'd have made 11 if I could. I thought Keenan Gough came on and was outstanding. He was the best player in that part of the second half by a distance. But the complaint is that when we got Bobby Kamwa in great areas. Forget his goal; it was a fantastic goal, and people look back at that in isolation and say what a goal, but he didn't get by his full-back all day.
“Certainly, in the second half, we gave him probably seven, eight or ten opportunities to get at him, and he didn't go by him once. Young Philip got in good areas as well. He's young, and he's learning, so he's a bit different to Bobby."
BOBBY KAMWA’S GOAL
“It shows you why we are disappointed when Bobby gets seven or eight opportunities to get at the full-back and doesn't go by him once. Probably, if we turn up here on Tuesday night again, play again, and you give Kamwa seven opportunities, he'll go by him five times.
“But he didn't do that today, but it's a special goal. So, we still love Bobby Kamwa. He's not the reason we lost the game today. Defensively, we were horrific for 25 minutes in that first half.”
AWAY FORM
“Unless you address that, you're never going to win promotion. You're never going to win every game at the Mem. We're going to try, but you're never going to win every game.
“I changed my mind in what I wanted to do with the formation, the team overnight, when I listened to Byron and Paul, and I just said to both of them, I won't be doing that too many times.
“It's not to blame because I make the final call. But I should have had a different shape and different system and a different way of playing today. I should have learned from York, and I didn't.”
TRAVELLING SUPPORT
“I just said to the players, they do not deserve their support, you know, away from home. I think they've said it’s 994 [away fans]. It looks a lot more than nine hundred and 994 to me.
“I think they're kidding themselves in the Crewe box, but what I would say is that at the minute, our away performances are not deserving of travelling support, and you can rest assured, we do everything to get it right, because that's not a Steve Evans and a Paul Raynor first half performance.
“If we come here and lose to a second-half goal, because they broke away as they did, we can live with that, because the second half was more like us, without a final product.”