Aggressive or accessible, Evans played big part in Millers’ rise

AT TEA-TIME on Saturday, Steve Evans was basking in the after-glow of back-to-back Championship wins as he led the Rotherham United fans, in a style akin to a classical conductor, through a celebratory party at St Andrews.
Steve Evans and Tony Stewart celebrate promotion to the Championship at WembleySteve Evans and Tony Stewart celebrate promotion to the Championship at Wembley
Steve Evans and Tony Stewart celebrate promotion to the Championship at Wembley

Less than 48 hours later, however, and the footballing equivalent of ‘musical differences’ meant the Scot was bidding farewell to the Millers and chairman Tony Stewart.

The two men met yesterday morning for what should have been a routine get together.

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There was much to discuss, not least those morale-boosting victories over Cardiff City and Birmingham City that had lifted the South Yorkshire club out of the relegation zone for the first time all season.

Exactly what was said in that meeting is not known, with Stewart and everyone else at the New York Stadium declining to add anything to yesterday’s statement that signalled the departure of not only Evans but also his assistant, Paul Raynor.

Clearly, though, the pair were no longer singing from the same hymn sheet in terms of what future direction Rotherham should take and, when that happens between a chairman and manager, a parting of the ways is inevitable.

The club statement made a point of stressing that the meeting between Evans and Stewart “was at all times positive, constructive and straight-forward”.

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Even so, yesterday’s development merely confirmed what many had thought almost from the moment Evans first walked through the door at the Don Valley in April, 2012 – that his time would end abruptly and with little warning.

Evans is a complex figure. Some days, he could be good company when welcoming the press into his office, and generous with his time. On other days, however, he would be in a much more truculent mood – something this newspaper fell foul of a couple of times.

His relationship with players seemed to be just as up and down. Not just at Rotherham, either, with the Crawley squad making clear their feelings on Evans after he had moved to the Don Valley – the Millers’ temporary home, in April, 2012 – by launching into an unflattering song about their recently departed manager, footage of which found its way on to youtube.

This said, Evans’s methods clearly work. Each of his three full seasons with the Millers ended in triumph with two promotions and a successful fight against relegation.

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The last of those was arguably his finest achievement. The Championship had changed massively since United’s previous stint in the second tier ended in 2005 and yet Evans’s side spent just seven days in the bottom three last term before securing safety with a game to spare.

A summer that saw Derby spend an eye-watering £24m on transfers as the likes of Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United also invested heavily meant this term was also going to be difficult.

Sure enough, Rotherham struggled in the early weeks but those recent consecutive wins seemed to banish much of the speculation that had been surrounding Evans’s future.

This belief, of course, proved to be well wide of the mark and the future envisaged by chairman Stewart will now unfold with a different man at the helm.

What Evans leaves behind, however, is a host of unforgettable memories and a town grateful for the huge role he played in the Millers’ rebirth.