Antony Evans has branded the Bristol Rovers squad “a brotherhood” after his late goal at Sutton United saw the Gas stretch their unbeaten run in the league to six games.
Rovers endured a tough afternoon in difficult conditions against a very pragmatic Sutton United on Saturday, but came away from Gander Green Lane with a valuable point thanks to an 85th minute penalty from Evans, cancelling out Richie Bennet’s first-half opener.
The late equaliser meant the Gas remained unbeaten in League Two in 2022 and it proved the third time in six of their games without defeat, they have salvaged points in the final 10 minutes, a feat that was not achieved once last season.
Evans, who grabbed his seventh goal of the season from 12 yards in South London, has played a significant role in many of Rovers’ late goals this season and he has put that desire to keep plugging away down to the close-knit squad that has developed since the start of the season.
“It’s the type of characters we’ve got in there,” Evans said. “It’s very rare that you get a group of lads as close as we’ve got in there and I think with the lads being from all over the country, it’s like a brotherhood and it’s great to be a part of.
“We’ve got experience, youth, numbers and we’ve got quality and that’s what’s going to take us forward.
“I think it’s just taken time for us to gel, but we’ve become like brothers in there. We’re a very close group and now we’re pushing on and finding ways to win and grind out results, and ultimately that’s what will get us up the table.”
In recent weeks, Rovers' creative players, in particular Luke Thomas, have profited from stealing possession high up the pitch with certain teams in League Two set on playing out from the back but a different approach was required in south London.
Through a combination of the weather and their opponents, Joey Barton's side were forced to muster a different way of playing football than what they’ve been accustomed to, and while Evans acknowledged the poor conditions, he was of the belief Rovers could’ve been more careful when in possession.
“I think we just need to keep the ball better,” he added. “We were going long when we shouldn’t have, with the conditions you could see we had to, but with the players we’ve got in our team we have to pass the ball and the more passes we get, the longer we have the ball and the more chances we’ll get.
“We tried to get it down and play when we could but the conditions meant at times we had to go long, and we didn’t have the biggest of players up front in Sam Nicholson, Luke Thomas and Aaron Collins, but they worked their socks off and it got us up the pitch and I think we did well in the conditions.
“Considering the run we’re on and the games in hand we’ve got, picking up a point is very valuable. Obviously three helps that bit more, but to go away from home and not to get beat from 1-0 down, we’d take that all day.”
The Pirates are now set for a busy February and March where they will play 13 games in total and the results will likely define how their season shapes up.
Kicking off the run of six consecutive midweek games sees the Gas travel to Oldham Athletic, in 23rd, where three points has to be the expected outcome, and Evans backed up that belief by indicating that every game Rovers go into, victory has to be at the forefront of their minds.
“We have to go there with a winning mentality and come out with nothing less than three points,” he added.
“I think we’re doing that everywhere we go now and considering we went 1-0 down today, we’ll take the point. We’re not happy cause it’s not three but the mentality is to go there and get three points and get these games in hand helping us up the table.
“The games in hand are nice to have, but you’d rather have points on the board and we’ve got to go into each of those games with a winning mentality to take three points every time and see where we go.
“We had some heavy defeats earlier in the season and that probably made us look weak to other sides, but at the moment we’re a very strong side in this division and we’re willing to prove that.
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