Reaction From Rotherham Boss Steve Evans

Last updated : 24 February 2014 By Thetashkentterror

Millers manager Steve Evans spoke to BBC Radio Sheffield after his side's 2-1 win over Carlisle at Brunton Park, Evans saying that Rotherham should have been out of sight in the game by half-time:

“It is always nice to score a winning goal and it is always nice when it comes in added time of course. But, we could have been four or five up at half-time, we should have been and instead of that we turned level. It is fair to say that for the one of the few times since probably October or November I had to get into the players a bit. It was just more about quality, more about taking a chance, more about being on the front foot.

“It was nothing to do with the performance because I don’t know what the stats showed but it must have been 80 plus per cent possession for us. You always fear the second-half because you wonder how much a part of it of the wind played in that first-half. But, to be fair to the players I said for some of them to go out and prove me wrong. Listen, if it had finished 1-1 we were still the dominant team and were still the team that made the chances in the second-half.

“Possibly only the match referee [Steve Martin] knows why we have not had three penalties here today, not one, not two, but three penalties. I suppose he will know but we will all go home and it is like a mystery as we will go home and I will ask him shortly to explain it. But, it is a great win, we tactically changed it to get Kieran Agard with his pace against their back two, but it didn’t come down to that, it just came down to his instinctiveness in the six-yard box.

“You have to say that it was a fantastic passing move to be fair, we have opened them up down the right-hand side. Great play by Nicky Adams, great play by James Tavernier, plays Alex Revell in down the right-hand side and what a fantastic crossed ball. Then Kieran does what we consider is the easiest part when in reality it is the hardest part in football when he gets across the defender and puts it in. To see what that meant was exellcent to a magnificent travelling support who made it sound like a home game for spells today.

“Their equaliser bang on half-time didn’t change what I was going to say to them, because if it had turned at 1-0 you know and I know and I think if everyone is honest in this ground today that it could have been four or five, it really should have been. We should have come out second-half and I should have been to able to come out, although a lot of people may have left because of it, with flip-flops and a pair of shorts on.

“That is what I should have been able to do, but I will tell you what, with Graham Kavanagh the difference with this Carlisle team under him, and I have watched them many times, he has real tenacity in that team, he has a great fighting spirit in that team and as much as we were dominating chances around the box in that second-half you always know that the players will drive to the end for him.

“My assistant manager [Paul Raynor] watched them win at Coventry in the week and he said the application they gave their manager was excellent and I thought Graham got that in abundance today. I think when he gets the opportunity and stamp to bring his own players in over the summer then this would be a club that I would expect to challenge next year.”