Steve Evans has called on the Gasheads to get behind Bristol Rovers once again as the Gas get ready to welcome Crewe Alexandra to The Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Pirates have been strong at home, winning three of their previous four fixtures at The Mem, scoring at least twice in each game. Rovers' previous fixture at BS7 proved to be an enjoyable one, with quickfire goals from Kofi Balmer and Joe Quigley putting the hosts in a commanding position before Yusuf Akhamrich's second-half strike completed a 3-1 victory.
An impressive 2,315 Gasheads travelled down to Swindon to watch a 1-1 draw at The Nigel Eady County Ground, with Ollie Palmer's finish cancelling out Kane Thompson-Sommers' first goal in the blue-and-white quarters, with Rovers now wanting to build on a couple of positive results in a busy period.
Speaking to the media before the fixture, Evans previewed the game against Crewe and delivered team news.
REFLECTING ON HIS TIME WITH THE GAS
“Well, it feels like 25 years! In all seriousness, it’s been such a short time, but the team has massively changed in terms of their approach leading into that game [against Crewe away]. The boys were the lowest ebb they could possibly be in the dressing room.
“So, we’ve worked really hard not just to add some fresh faces in the January window, but how we adapt things and how we're doing things is just a little bit different. So, the boys are in a good place, but ultimately that will be judged at the end of the season.
“I am here for heart, desire and wanting to win. I can remember the chairman asked me in my final meeting with him before I accepted the role was ‘what gets you out of bed in the morning?’ What gets me out of bed is winning football matches, and we’re not doing that enough at the moment.”
CREWE’S RECENT PERFORMANCES
“Yeah, they’ve been very successful in recent times, haven’t they? I’m obviously aware of their away form, I think going into the Christmas period, they were in the bottom three or four, in terms of away performances, in terms of wins.
“Now they’re arguably in the top end of the two or three. They’ve been really efficient on the road, which was demonstrated with a win at Swindon, and we saw last week how difficult that can be. So, I’m under no illusion that they’re a really good side that Lee Bell’s put together. A young manager that I got on well with, and I think really highly of.
"They're in a really good place, they've got good players and an excellent manager and team, as I have said and a good support. We have to be on the front foot, and we have to be very good on Saturday to win the game. But there’s a big incentive for us to win the game, and we call that a little mini run, and that will send us into the weekend in a good place. That comes from winning."
PREVIEW FOR THE NEXT FORTNIGHT
“We’ll travel nice and early on Monday, we’ll go up Monday, we’ll train en route at a Championship facility on the way up the road. We’ll arrive up in the lakes nice and early on Monday, and the boys will relax, and then we’ll do a little bit on the day of the game, on Tuesday morning and then prepare for the game.
"What happens after the game is like every team experiences anyway. Subject to no road closures, we’ll come down the road in four and a half hours, if there’s road closures we’ll come back on Wednesday.”
PLAYER NEWS
“They [Shaq Forde and Riley Harbottle] are available. They’ve been training. So, you can see the difference in quality when Harbottle and Forde come into your session. They’re welcome back with the boys; they know they’re two big players for us.
"I'll be careful with team selection. I've had a good look at the boys in the last couple of days, and I'll have another good look at them tomorrow, and I'll make a final decision on what I want to do with the team.
"There’s no rush. I think the performance against Grimsby was very good, particularly in the second half, though we went 2-0 up early. So, from our point of view, we just have to be consistent in our approach and pick the team to do the job on Saturday. We’re going to need the whole squad, you know, when you have quickly following Crewe, you have a long trip to Barrow, then we have another long-ish trip up to Bromley. We’ve got a real tough seven days ahead.
“Promise Omochere won’t be available. I’m probably thinking Promise will be two or three weeks, just a little thigh strain in the last week when we’re doing some finishing and shooting. The kid just felt it, and progressively, these things happen.
"They go home, and they cool down, and he's still feeling it a little bit. We've had him scanned, and there's no big, big deal in it, but for us, it's a loss because we've worked really hard on his fitness over the last couple of weeks to get him in the best ever shape he's been in. But we’ve got no complaints with our striker options with Mees Rijks in the building and Fabrizio Cavegn and Ellis Harrison and big Joe."
"Josh McEachran is a couple of weeks away. He is very similar to Promise; they’re probably two weeks away, so we’re probably looking at the Saturday after Bromley for them to be available to us.
“I think there’s no doubt we’ll have Macauley Southam-Hales available towards the end of the season. For maybe three or four games? But also, from our point of view, if we get that close to the end of the season, it would be nice to get Macca involved and get him in front of the supporters and let them see he still exists. He is, was, and is going to be a really good player for us.”
A MESSAGE TO THE GASHEADS
“Just keep at it. We need every man, woman, boy and girl, don’t we? We need everyone at the minute just to stay behind us, even in bad moments in games, and we need them to stay with us.
“I thought they did that at Swindon, I thought they were incredible, you know. Swindon scored, and within five minutes the Gasheads were in full voice, and this Gas family grows on you; you become one of them. I need them, and they need us.”
