Wary Evans still favours McStay’s Rossies despite Mayo’s resilience

JOHN EVANS is backing Roscommon to deliver another big performance against Mayo in tomorrow’s All-Ireland senior football quarter-final replay at Croke Park – and knock out last year’s beaten finalists.

Evans guided the fortunes of the Rossies for three seasons, before he was succeeded by Kevin McStay and Fergal O’Donnell in 2015.

O’Donnell stepped down after one year — leaving McStay in sole control ahead of the 2017 campaign.

Former Mayo player McStay has guided Roscommon to a Connacht title – and they rattled his native county in an entertaining Croke Park stalemate eight days ago.

‘He’s done a wonderful job,’ Evans (below) acknowledges. ‘He’s put a lot of freshness into them, a new voice. He’s targeted what he wanted and gone after it. That was the Connacht Championship. Once you do that, you’re achieving your goals — that’s what the management and team want.’

But Kerryman Evans is not one for reflected glory — even though he took Roscommon from Division 3 to the top flight of the Allianz League during his time there.

When it was confirmed that he was stepping down in August 2015, Evans claimed that at the time that there was an ‘active canvas’ from within the county to remove him from the post.

When asked if history will be kind to him, considering that the Rossies are now western kingpins, he replied: ‘I don’t get involved in that. In any of the interviews I’ve ever done, all I’ve done is praised the young lads and the management team going forward. I’m delighted to see they’ve arrived.’

Evans handed a number of current Roscommon players their senior debuts — including Connacht final man-of-thematch Enda Smith.

On the back of Connacht minor successes in 2011 and 2012, and Under-21 wins in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015, Roscommon were an emerging force with Evans at the senior helm.

Smith was always a special talent, Evans says, and he wants the Boyle powerhouse freed from Lee Keegan’s shackles in tomorrow’s rematch.

Mayo were clever in their positioning of Keegan in the drawn game, as he put Smith on the back foot in the first-half.

Early in the second period, McStay reacted by moving Smith to full-forward, with Keegan following him. That move did help to nullify the influence of the 2016 Footballer of the Year, but Evans wants Smith more centrally involved.

‘I brought him from the U-21s straight onto the senior team,’ Evans recalls. ‘He’s a great player. I’m sure he will have learned from last Sunday and the management will have learned that if you’re to get the most out of Enda Smith, you don’t need to have him tied down inside at full-forward.’

Overall, Evans, who says he is ‘enthusiastic’ about the game again and ‘thinking about getting back involved’ in management again, is backing Roscommon’s youthful exuberance to cause a jaded-looking Mayo problems again.

He said: ‘For a first shot at it, with Mayo, I thought Roscommon did extremely well.

‘And they had a young team, that lacked experience. The more games they get at this level, the better they’re going to get.

‘Rest assured these guys are going to get better. Whether they’ve learned enough in a week is the question, against a very experienced Mayo side.

‘There would have to be a question mark over that. I would prefer to have seen two or three weeks to give an inexperienced side a chance to take stock of their mistakes, and learn from them.

‘But you balance that then with the Roscommon brashness, exuberance and pace. And they love playing in Croke Park. They’ve won two League finals there and it suits their style of play and suits everything about them.’

But Evans is wary of Mayo’s resilience. Three years ago, in a Connacht semi-final, Roscommon were in a decent position but Mayo caught them late, to edge home by a point.

‘We were three points up with 10 minutes to go but this Mayo team is resilient and tough,’ Evans says.

‘They have proved it and I admire Mayo for what they’ve done and are capable of doing. My heart is saying Roscommon and I’m going to go with them. They can do it again and have done it before. They’re not a one-trick pony and have a lot of talent up their sleeves. It will come to pass.’