EVANS VOWS TO LIFT MILLERS
STEVE Evans has promised to bring “confidence and swagger” back to relegated Rotherham after completing a sensational return to the New York Stadium.
The 61-year-old Scot led the Millers from League Two to the Championship during a hugely successful three-year stint at the helm. He departed in 2015 but remained on good terms with chairman Tony Stewart and has now been lured from Stevenage to rebuild a side that, pre-weekend, had won just four of 43 Championship games this term.
Depressing
“It’s been a really depressing season for everyone associated with the club,” said Evans, who was appointed on Wednesday following the dismissal of Leam Richardson.
“To say the supporters are frustrated is an understatement, but they won’t be frustrated from now on. We’re going to win some matches.
“We want our players to play with a confidence and a swagger. The chairman expects us to be challenging, and so do I. We’ll be competing for promotion next season, there are no doubts about that.”
Richardson, who replaced Matt Taylor in December, won just two of his 24 games in charge and Stewart said a lack of fight prompted him to make the change.
“I think the fans of Rotherham United want what I want,” he said. “They want success. They want a team that works hard and gives 110 per cent.
“I didn’t see that bite, that enthusiasm. I didn’t see that Rotherham spirit. The
By Chris Dunlavy
last one-and-a-half seasons, there’s not been that battle, that war-cry, and I felt we needed to put that back in.
“Steve was the man who came here when we opened the new stadium and what a joyride that was.
“We’ve always kept in touch. We’ve had parties. We’ve had dinners. I’ve been to his daughter’s wedding. When he left it was genuinely mutual consent - he went his way and we went ours.
“But I always reflected on the years we spent together. The guy that turned up to a new stadium and performed a miracle. The fun and the excitement. That’s what’s gone. And I knew that if I wanted someone with the energy, the Rotherham mentality, it had to be Steve Evans.”
Since leaving Rotherham, Evans has managed Leeds, Mansfield, Peterborough, Gillingham and most recently Stevenage, whom he guided to an improbable promotion from League Two last season.
Opportunity
This term, Boro spent the majority of the season challenging for a place in the top six before a run of one win in ten matches scuppered dreams of backto-back promotions.
“Everything I can say about Stevenage gets a huge tick,” said Evans. “But as (chairman) Phil Wallace knew, when the call came from Rotherham a couple of days ago, it was always something I spoke so highly of and so fondly of that he knew if the opportunity came, I would say yes. What I have left behind is a really good staff and really good players for the level.”
With assistant Paul Raynor having followed Evans to South Yorkshire, firstteam coach Alex Revell will manage Stevenage until the end of the season.