Evans a worthy winner of Rovers’ player of the season award
SINCE the conversation for Bristol Rovers’ player of the season begun, two candidates have stood out in Antony Evans and Chris Martin. The former for his contribution on and off the ball, while the latter for his 16 League One goals without which you really do fear where the Gas could have ended up.
It’s not only the goals with Martin, of course, with the striker also known to get stuck in when needed, particularly defending set-pieces. The 35-year-old has had an outstanding first campaign with Rovers, particularly when you consider the fact he joined as a free agent at the end of September. However, in my eyes, Evans was always the standout choice and has rightly been named Bristol Rovers player of the season.
First and foremost, during a season that has been plagued by injuries throughout the team, the 25-year-old has been consistently available, with his only absences being suspension-related. With 51 matches across all competitions under his belt this term, likely to become 52 in the final game at Wigan Athletic this weekend, Evans tops the Gas’ appearances chart for the campaign with Harvey Vale (46) and Luke Thomas (45) his closest competitors.
Naturally, there are going to be some off-days within a sample size that significant but in the vast majority of those games the midfielder has been one of Rovers’ best players. Considering his season begun with a brief cameo from the bench in the opening-day draw at Portsmouth before also being a substitute in the League Cup defeat at Ipswich Town three days later, he quickly embedded himself as a kingpin in the side, starting with an outstanding 90 minutes against Barnsley in the first home game of the campaign.
From memory and reports written that day eight months ago, Evans consistently got himself involved in Rovers’ flurries forward with the Gas unlucky not to win that afternoon. Essentially, he signalled how most of his displays were going to play out for the remainder of the campaign.
The 25-year-old has demonstrated everything you want from an attack-minded midfielder: a big distance covered, work rate, goal contributions, tackles, interceptions. Rovers going out on the pitch without his creativity would be like a machine running with a missing cog, it just doesn’t operate as efficiently. Luckily, the Gas have been able to have their star man available for all bar three matches which were missed for yellow card suspensions.
Ten goals and nine assists across all competitions has seen Evans top the goal contribution chart as well, with six in each department coming in the league. Certainly there have been opportunities to top up that list, particularly with two penalty misses lately, but it represents a significant chunk of Rovers’ attacking output this season. With 52 goals scored in League One this term ahead of Saturday’s final game, 23 per cent of those have been either scored or assisted by Evans, which highlights just how integral he has been.
The other aspect of the midfielder’s quality is that rarely, if at all, have those 10 goals been tap-ins. You will struggle to find a player
with a better shooting range from 25 to 30 yards in League One, with strikes against the likes of Cheltenham Town (EFL Trophy), Burton Albion, Stevenage and Crewe Alexandra all coming from distance, while the possible pick of the bunch was his free-kick against Portsmouth.
Additionally, there can’t be many better from dead-ball scenarios in the third tier. Most of those assists have come from deliveries into the box and, although increasing the amount of goals from set-pieces will be on Matt Taylor’s mind going into next season, Rovers have still been able to cause havoc in the penalty area as a result of Evans’ deliveries.
Goals in the 2-1 victories against Bolton Wanderers and Portsmouth were standout moments in the campaign for Rovers as a collective, not just the midfielders, and got the Taylor era fully up and running.
Frustratingly, the success that we all hoped that end-of-2023 run foreshadowed never prevailed. Had you said at that point the Gas would go on to finish in the bottom half of the table, eyebrows would’ve been raised in disappointment.
After his first league and home game in charge, a 1-1 draw against Cheltenham, Taylor described Evans as a “classy player,” a game in which the midfielder had to make an impact from the bench which hasn’t been a regularly-made statement this term, so rare in fact that it was the last time he found himself starting a match sat down as opposed to stood on the pitch.
As the 25-year-old continued to perform for the new manager, eventually the decision was made to hand him the captain’s armband when Sam Finley was absent. At the time, Taylor declared there wasn’t many clear candidates and that, although he isn’t a shouter, Evans leads by example and was the obvious choice to be made stand-in skipper. With Finley seemingly confirming his departure, that could make the decision of who replaces him as club captain easier but, unfortunately, there also has to be a realistic discussion as to whether or not Evans will actually be at the football club next season.
Right now, you would have to say the midfielder is Rovers’ most valuable asset in terms of market value going into the summer. That’s not to say that they need to sell to buy, but it would be surprising for there to be no serious external interest in Evans during the upcoming transfer window and it may prove tough to keep hold of him.