Bradford City v Rotherham United: Evans anxious to forget the past as huge Yorkshire derby looms

Last March, members of Evans’s Crawley Town side were involved in a post-match brawl with their Bradford counterparts that resulted in five players being shown the red card in the dressing room.

Andrew Davies, Luke Oliver and goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin saw red for Bradford while the Crawley duo of Pablo Mills and Claude Davis – now on the books at Rotherham – were also dismissed as the immediate aftermath of the game descended into chaos.

A sixth player, Crawley’s Kyle McFadzean, was later banned for violent conduct on the basis of video evidence.

Evans was subsequently found guilty of using “abusive and insulting words and behaviour with a reference to gender towards a female member of Bradford City’s staff” and was given a £3,000 fine and a six-game stadium ban, which he had to serve at the start of Rotherham United’s season.

The Millers chief returns to Valley Parade tonight for the first time for a fixture that could shape the future for one of these White Rose sides as they look to take a significant step towards promotion to League One.

Evans was keen to move past last year’s incident yesterday, though he did admit to being bitter at the punishment he received.

“Absolutely, but I don’t want to go into it,” said the Glaswegian, when pushed. “There are no memories (of the incident) because nothing happened.

“I’ve got nothing to put behind me because nothing happened.”

When he was not on the defensive, Evans was fulsome in his praise of the Bantams; the club, their fans and Phil Parkinson, the manager with whom he clashed so angrily 13 months ago.

“They’ve got fantastic supporters, a huge support base and it’s a Yorkshire derby of huge significance,” said Evans.

“They’ve had the most wonderful season. The Cup form was fantastic, and with their League season, there was always going to be a spell where they dipped.

“But they’ve got a big squad, some experienced players and an experienced manager. At the end of the day, they were always going to be fighting for promotion.

“I don’t think it (the past) will have an impact. I was speaking to Ronnie Moore recently and he was saying Bradford fans don’t like him either. They don’t like me so it doesn’t matter who is leading Rotherham up there.

“It’s different clubs, different teams. The Bradford City fans will be jovial about it, I’m sure.

“Their fans who came to the New York Stadium behaved impeccably. We want our support to go to Bradford and behave impeccably and for the football to do the talking, so that when everybody leaves Valley Parade they’ve enjoyed a fantastic game of football between two of the better teams in the division.”

On Parkinson, Evans added: “I don’t speak to Phil, but I’ve never had a bad word with Phil. I’ve a lot of respect for Phil.

“I’ve got no issue with Bradford City Football Club and my chairman (Tony Stewart) has an outstanding relationship with Mark Lawn (Bradford chairman).”

For his part, Parkinson was similarly keen not to dwell on the past.

“Forget what has happened, we need to look on what can happen in the future,” said Parkinson.

“We are meeting a team who are above us in the League and who are striving for that top three or the play-offs.

“It is also a Yorkshire derby and there is so much resting on the game. We are really relishing the fixture.

“I don’t want to even mention the opposition manager. This is Bradford City against Rotherham United, two teams in the top seven. What a game. That is our focus.”

Asked if he had spoken to his players about the need to stay calm regardless of what happens off the pitch, Parkinson replied: “No. There is so much focus on what happens on the pitch and it would be a shame if anything detracted from that.

“I want to focus on what I have got to do to get the best out of my team whether that be tactics, substitutions or anything else – I need to be clearly thinking about that.”

The prize on offer tonight is the prospect of keeping alive automatic promotion hopes.

If Bradford lose they will have to try to remain in the play-offs and potentially play three more games on top of what has already been a mammoth season.

Rotherham are not at the last-chance saloon just yet, after successive wins over promotion rivals put their fate back in their own hands.

“We’ve got three games against teams still fighting for something,” said Evans in reference to fixtures against strugglers Plymouth (away) and Aldershot (home) after tonight’s derby.

“The others competing with us are playing, at some stage, a team that is playing for nothing.

“It’s possible we could need nine points, but it’s possible we could need as few as five.

“We’ve certainly got momentum, but we don’t under-estimate the size of the task at Bradford.”

Rotherham could be without the services of top scorer Daniel Nardiello, with Evans rating him as 50-50 after he picked up a knock in the win over Fleetwood.

“He won’t play unless he’s 100 per cent fit,” said the manager.

Last six games: Bradford WDWWWD; Rotherham LWLLWW.

Last time: Bradford City 2 Rotherham United 3; November 19, 2011; League Two.

Referee: M Haywood (West Yorkshire).

“Let’s make a good season a great one”

PHIL PARKINSON admits tonight’s fixture could be a dress rehearsal for the League Two play-off final, writes Richard Sutcliffe.

Two places and five points separate the Bantams and Millers, who were both relegated to the bottom tier six years ago.

A home win tonight would go a long way towards cementing a place in the play-offs, while a Rotherham victory would see Steve Evans’s men move into the automatic promotion places with just two games remaining.

Parkinson said: “It could potentially be a play-off final. Both teams are up there. But our focus is on making sure we stay there. We have worked so hard to get to this point.

“We had a chat with the lads (on Monday) and said we’d got ourselves in a good position ’but let’s make a good season a great season’.

“We are not content with what we have so far. We want more. The minute anyone at this club shows sign of being content with what we have so far then we don’t want them around.”

City, unbeaten in half-a-dozen games, have hit form at just the right time, but Parkinson is well aware how tough a test tonight’s game will be for his side.

The Millers triumphed 4-0 over their Yorkshire rivals in early September, though the Bantams chief does insist his side were on the end of a harsh scoreline at the New York Stadium.

Parkinson said: “We lost down there, but everything they hit in that first half went in. It was a bit like what happened to Newcastle at home to Sunderland at the weekend (when the Magpies lost 3-0).

“It wasn’t a good game for us, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Throughout the course of a season, you get games like that, where the scoreline probably doesn’t reflect the balance of the game.”

Andrew Davies (calf) and Kyel Reid (groin) are City’s major injury concerns ahead of what, considering the events of 13 months ago when Steve Evans took his Crawley side to Valley Parade and six players received their marching orders, seems certain to be a Yorkshire derby played amid a raucous atmosphere.

Parkinson added: “As much as I am asking the players for one last big push, I am also asking the supporters for the same.

“The more vociferous the crowd is, the harder it is for the opposition.”