THE GAME
The news ahead of this match against a Crawley Town side looking to stave off relegation was that Steve Evans had been offered, and accepted, a permanent contract that will see him in charge of Rovers until 2008.
It was, perhaps, a little bit ironic came on the day that Rovers were facing the side that he and Paul Raynor led into the Football League for the first time ever, back in 2011 and now here they were looking to ensure that they had to continue to fight to save their hard won league status.
Evans made six changes to his starting lineup as they went in search of a sixth consecutive win. Out went Clinton Mola, Ryan De Havilland, Yusuf Akhamrich, Kane Thompson-Sommers, Josh McEachran and Joe Quigley and in came Jack Sparkes, Alfie Kilgour, Ellis Harrison, Tommy Leigh, Mees Rijks and Richie Smallwood.
Rovers began brightly and Harrison headed over from a Rijks cross early on and it was the striker who gave Rovers the lead with 26 minutes gone when he was played in by Kofi Balmer and held off his marker before slotting the ball underneath goalkeeper Jacob Chapman.
Gasheads didn’t have long to wait for their side’s second goal; four minutes to be precise. Leigh was the provider on this occasion when he played Joel Senior in down the right. The defender looked as though he was going to shoot but, instead, squared the ball across to Rijks who somehow managed to knock the ball over the 
line whilst on the ground, having slipped in his efforts to reach Senior’s pass. It was the striker’s first goal for the club and he certainly seems to have been practising his celebrations!
There might have been a third goal before the break but Riley Harbottle but he failed to convert from a Shaq Forde cross. The visitors created very little in the first half, in spite of enjoying a great deal of possession and might have pulled a goal back through Dion Pereira but be blazed his shot high over the bar.
They began the second half brightly, though, and Bradley Young prevented a certain goal with an outstanding save from Tobi Adeyemo from point blank range.
Harrison might have made the game safe for Rovers, but headed wide from Smallwood’s cross when well placed, while Forde hit an effort over the bar.
Crawley, who had looked dangerous for long spells, managed to pull a goal back in the 80th minute when Louie Watson raced into the box and fired a fierce shot past Young. As the visitors pressed for an equaliser, substitute Tom Lockyer saw red for brining down Harry McKirdy on the edge of the area and, as he was the last defender and denied his opponent a goalscoring opportunity, he had to go.
Some solid and, at times, desperate defending kept the visitors at bay and, as they swarmed around the Rovers goal looking to force the ball home, a clearance reached Akhamrich and he ran from the halfway line before chipping his shot over goalkeeper Chapman. It was a stunning strike from a player who is surely destined for great things in the future and wrapped up another three points for his temporary employers.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘I think it must be a special day for anyone appointed manager of Bristol Rovers Football Club, because it is a special club. Who makes it such a special club at this present time? Our owner, our board, Hussain AlSaeed and Abdullatif AlSaeed. All of our board of directors, Abdulaziz Alroomi and Khaled Alkandari, are all playing a part. I speak regularly to all of them, and they are all playing a big part. It is just a special day when you become a manager here. The support is there, and the supporters are the real owners of this football club. I always say it, I said it to our chairman in our talks over the last two weeks that they are the real owners – he is the custodian – but the real owners are the Gasheads. I am just proud to be a part of the family.
‘It’s a great finish, great first touch from Ellis. At first, I thought maybe a bit too far, but I think he has played it to get the angle, and it is a great finish. We are just totally dominant and against the wind. We are just totally dominant and playing really well. We come in at half time, and we remind ourselves that it is not finished. We get the second goal of course, Mees gets his goal which we have all been waiting for, I think he stumbled it in, but when you are nervous that type of thing happens but I think he had a good introduction to the game today as well, him and Ellis were causing them enormous problems and I warned them that this Crawley team are where we were eight weeks ago, they are fighting for EFL survival.
‘I am really, really pleased for Yusuf. He has been playing with a little niggle, we brought him today, as Shaq got a bit tired. He covered a lot of ground, Shaq did, a lot of unselfish running. We put Yusuf on, and if I want two people in our football club going through in a situation like that, one is Yusuf, and one is Shaq Forde. They are my kids at this club, and as he went through, I went, ‘just dink the goalkeeper as I did 40 years ago’. Only tongue in cheek, but it was great to see the Gasheads in full voice as well, and normally on the days like today when you are introduced, and you get a new contract, and everyone is positive, that’s the day it sort of goes against you.’ Rovers Head Coach Steve Evans
‘It was a great feeling to get my first goal. I am really happy, and I’m really proud. I just saw the ball come to Joel Senior, and I just hoped that he would give it to me, and he did. It very generous, and I nicked it in. It looked a bit scrappy, and I was really happy. It was the first time celebrating in front of the fans and hopefully, many more to come]. We train a lot, and as a striker, you want to score, you want to have your goals. I’m happy to end the dry spell.
‘It feels amazing, and it was a good victory. We were in a great position and at the end of the first half, I felt like we were really in control and being 2-0 up helped us a lot. In the second half, we were struggling a little bit more, and they were stronger. There were some decisions we didn’t really get, but it is what it is. In the end, we took it over the line. It was a great goal by Yusuf as well and a great finish.
‘When we come here, everyone feels really strong because of the fans, and every single player loves to play here. We love to be on our home patch, and we have been really good here. It gives us a lot of confidence. It’s been great so far. I like it a lot, and Bristol has been great. A lot of the lads have been helping me a lot. We do nice stuff, see the city, and it’s been great so far. I like living here.’ Rovers striker Mees Rijks
‘It’s still in our own destiny, isn’t it? It is in our hands and I want everybody to understand this. The boys left everything out there today. Absolutely everything and they left everything out there without getting red cards, which was good. So we’ve got a whole full squad for next week. But in terms of when you look at it and you’re in this fight and you look at what they gave today – you don’t want to be in this situation – but you know what? I’ll take our guys into the next fight.
‘If they start that last game, how we ended this game today and how we started this game today, minus the moments, minus the little lapses in concentration, we’ve got a real chance and I’ve always believed that. And for those that didn’t watch the game, try and grab a little glimpse. At the end of the day, it’s 3-1 and we lost and we take nothing home a that’s got to change.
‘The main factor is scoring goals and their third goal came because we were chasing the game and taking more risks than we would have done earlier in the game. For long periods I thought we dominated and had chances to score.’ Crawley Boss Colin Kazim-Richards
