Key Highlights
- Doing so at Crewe Alexandra, albeit with his new side playing against 10 men for more than an hour, at least removed an early monkey from his back. Ahead is something far trickier, a task that would daunt many other managers, as the veteran coach seeks to fire the League Two strugglers – hitherto on a 10-game losing streak that had taken them into the relegation zone – up the division.
- The ultimate goal?
- To clamber on to an equal footing with Bristol City. That was Evans’s mission statement after taking the job at the Memorial Stadium, though this 1-1 draw 136 miles north at Crewe’s Gresty Road perhaps shows how much work he must do just to keep the Gas in the Football League, let alone reach League One or the Championship, where City kicked off the weekend in 11th. After being unveiled as manager on Tuesday, Evans doubled down on his belief that Rovers have been “operating at a level in the pyramid way below where they should be”.
- “I’ve thought that for a number of years.
- There’s two proud football clubs in this city, but I’ve genuinely always believed that Bristol Rovers can be a big, big club.



