Rotherham United v Crawley Town: Why Steve Evans believes he will be able to fix derailed Millers
Steve Evans says Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart has told him he will be allowed to "fix the train" this summer – and that is good enough for him.
Sixteen points off the League play-off places, nine above the relegation zone ahead of Saturday's visit from a Crawley Town reinvigorated by the return of Scott Lindsey, the Millers are marking time until the end of the season.
It was not meant to be like this for a club promoted in their last four third-tier seasons.
In this impatient era, managers rarely survive a failure of a season, but Evans is confident he get the chance to make amends.
"The chairman has told me that I will," he said. "He's always been a man I've known to be true to his word.
"At the end of the season, there's always a post-mortem, whether you've done very well or not.
"If you've had a poor season – and, by our standards, we've had a poor season – you have to analyse it. But if you're going through a dark tunnel on a train and it breaks down, you don't get off the train, do you? You fix the train and you move on."
It will be easier to keep faith if they sign off with a few wins which will also help the rebuild. Evans has warned it will be tough.
"We've never been tested like this in terms of injuries,” he said. "We've got 15/16 first-teamers available, two are goalkeepers.
"(The fans) are entitled to be disappointed with the season, to be disappointed with certain performances and results. I have to focus on that but also the positivity of some other performances.”
Shaun McWilliams (quad), Josh Kayode (calf), Andre Green (Achilles), Sean Raggett (knee), Alex MacDonald (hip) and Zak Jules (hamstring) are all absentees.