Evans only wants win from Crawley reunion

The Glaswegian led Crawley out of the Conference and to the brink of promotion from League Two before taking on the task of reviving Rotherham United.

That opportunity might not have materialised had he not done such a good job in West Sussex, but he said: “The fact it is Crawley doesn’t mean anything, it is just another fixture.

“There were five or six fixtures I looked for before this one when they came out in June, but it will be nice to go back there, it’s a good club, with good people and good players, but come 3pm we will want to win.

“As a manager, I will never forget those times. How can you forget breaking every record in non-league football, how can you forget two FA Cup runs to the fifth round, how can you forget playing Man Utd off the pitch at Old Trafford?

“You can never forget that, but all that success has afforded me the opportunity to come and work here. That success got me the job here.

“The club will always be in my heart, it can’t ever go away. I still speak regularly to the owners socially, they are salt of the earth and really good people.

“Every player or manager that goes back to their own club wants to win. I am looking forward to it and hopefully we can win.

“Crawley are punching above their weight with the size of the club, but you will never stop the desire of the owners down there, they are good people.

“If they improve from last year they will be in the shake up for the play-offs.”

Rotherham have made an unbeaten start to life in League One, yet by the same token are also chasing their first win.

“It has been a reasonable start,” said Evans. “We will always judge it on performances, I know results ultimately get you sacked, but we are pleased with the first two games.

“We won the first game at New York last season and then went to Northampton and got beat and there was a crisis. It’s 46 games, it’s a long season.

“The 0-0 game against Preston last week was the first 0-0 draw at New York, so we don’t draw many games.”