There has been plenty of noise around Fleetwood Town this week after their Carabao Cup heroics, but Steve Evans knows Bristol Rovers have a job to do at Highbury Stadium.
The Cod Army have been in the news this week after beating Premier League champions in the Carabao Cup to reach the quarter-finals, drawing 1-1 before a 5-3 triumph on penalties.
Evans knows all about big cup ties, taking Crawley Town to Old Trafford to face Manchester United and knocking Aston Villa out of the FA Cup with Stevenage. The 63-year-old was impressed with Fleetwood's midweek exploits and is looking forward to the Pirates getting back in action.
Rovers' four-game losing run ended last weekend. The focus is now on stopping the Pirates' torrid away form, with Evans sure that improved performances will bring positive results.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM FLEETWOOD AFTER CUP WIN
"I have had days like that and nights like that. I have taken a team to Old Trafford and played particularly well, knocking out Premier League clubs and Championship clubs. It creates a good feel factor, and everyone wants to be in the team, and that's what it did for us, but it can have the negative side as well.
"We know that we would have loved to have a night where we beat Arsenal, but they have done it and congratulations. It's a lifetime memory for people like young Harrison Neal, who took a lot of criticism after the game. I gave him his league debut. He's a wonderful kid, and that memory will be with him forever.
"They won't be sitting in against us, that's for sure. Arsenal showed a lot of respect to Fleetwood and quite rightfully had almost 80 per cent possession and 37 shots at goal, whatever the stats say, but Fleetwood found a way to win."
JOB TO DO
"We congratulate them, but we focus on ourselves. We've got a job to do, and we're looking forward to playing on Saturday. There's a saying: you can only focus on the players we have available to us. That's what we've done for the last couple of days, and that's what we'll do."
AWAY FORM
"The players know the performances have not been good enough. Performances bring results. At The Mem, we have lost one or two games that we shouldn't have lost because the performances were very good. At The Mem, we have been bordering on outstanding in certain games, but away from home, those performances have not been there.
"Of course, we're all trying to change things to get the same impact. If it wasn't right at home, we would be changing things. We will keep chopping and changing and whatever it takes to bring a winning formula.
"If we get it individually right, collectively it will come together. I think the lads would be the first to say, as individuals, we have not been performing the way we should have done away from home, and I take full responsibility and culpability."
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOME AND AWAY
"We all know individuals make up a team performance, and there is a different characteristic needed to go and perform away from home. We don't have 12,000 Gasheads screaming behind us and getting us decisions and getting us motivated. So, we have to do it for ourselves.
"All I want us to do is go to Fleetwood and represent this football club with the pride you have inside you if you play or manage this football club."
HAPPY WITH A POINT
"Of course I would take a point because we are in a losing sequence away from home. I wouldn't be taking a point at nil-nil; I would try to win one-nil, but if it finished as we've got a share of the scores, then we'll come down the road, and we'll get ready for a massive cup tie. For me, the FA Cup is special, but let's go to Fleetwood and put in a really disciplined, hard-working, honest, sincere, genuine performance, and that's not what we've been doing away from home.
"At home, I can put the kettle on for what I get. I can put the kettle on for all of those characteristics, plus goals, plus passion, plus commitment, and plus trying to keep 12,000 Gasheads happy. I can put the kettle on for that. Away from home, we've been shortchanging ourselves, and I've led it."
LOOKING TO SCORE MORE GOALS
"We have not created the chances we were creating earlier in the season. Fabrizio was getting three of four chances a game, and Ellis was, and Joe is coming onto the pitch, and Shaq Forde was. If we go to Fleetwood and make numerous chances, we will have a chance of winning the game."
ELLIS HARRISON UPDATE
"Ellis just has a problem at the bottom of his foot, and it's about whether he can bear weight or not. He has not trained this week at all, but we're going to look at him this afternoon, get him on the grass and then we will make a decision from there. We're pretty understocked in terms of the availability of certain players, but we want to focus on the ones that can play at Fleetwood and not the ones that can't."
KOFI BALMER SUSPENDED
"Kofi has been a big player for us. He's been terrific since he walked into the football club. He's a centre-half; he gets five cautions; that's to be expected. It happens. There will be a lot of players who will start to miss one or two games around now, but Kofi has been an instrumental part of our winning culture here. But we have got other players that can slot in there. Keenan Gough came on there on Saturday and did very well."
