Absent Evans hoping for response from Millers

It’s been a tough seven days for Evans, handed a six-match stadium ban on Monday after being found guilty of using abusive and insulting behaviour following old club Crawley’s clash at Bradford on March 27, with a sign of things to come arriving when his Millers side were hammered 6-2 by a Tom Pope-inspired Port Vale.

Evans labelled that display as “embarrassing” and is demanding an instant response from his pre-season promotion favourites this afternoon.

He said: “The boys were very down when we had them in on Sunday morning following the game.

“But they have been chomping at the bit in training in the early part of the week and at it with some real fire in their bellies.

“If we can see that fire against Torquay, we’ll be back to how we can be.

“We’ve a lot of big characters and experienced players who were hurting after Saturday – so they should be.

“You have setbacks, but it’s how quickly you move on and get a good result.”

On today’s opponents Torquay, who he is tipping to also be in the promotion play-off shake-up, Evans added: “They have signed good players and they are the ones who get you promotion.

“They have a good manager in Martin (Ling) and are another team who keep themselves under the radar and say they don’t have any money to spend, but they keep turning up with players.”

Evans has confirmed he is in the loan market for a striker and a midfielder – with a goalscorer at the top of his list.

On his bid to sign a forward, he added: “It’s not going to happen before next week, but there’s been positive headway in that both clubs have agreed it can happen. But we need to get next Tuesday’s game out of the road first.”

In terms of selection, Rotherham’s Kari Arnason is a doubt with a twisted ankle sustained on international duty with Iceland with the Millers mangement team prepared to give him until this lunchtime to prove his fitness.

Torquay winger Danny Stevens said the visitors would be confident of heading home on the back of a positive result.

He said: “We know tomorrow will be tough at Rotherham, but we play better against better teams.

“We want to end the run of draws we’ve had.”