Bristol Rovers’ Steve Evans slams Jack Sparkes - Backlash looms | OneFootball

Bristol Rovers head coach Steve Evans will need his team all pulling in same direction

Bristol Rovers fell to their 21st defeat of the season on Tuesday night following a few days that may have left head coach Steve Evans wondering whether he should leave all his matchday press briefings to his assistant Paul Raynor.

The feisty Glaswegian found himself making national headlines for all the wrong reasons after comments he made concerning one of his own players following last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Cambridge.

It was a high-risk manoeuvre by the Rovers head coach, who will be hoping that it sparks (no pun intended) life into his team rather than bring a backlash that could end up with his side losing their Football League status.

Steve Evans calls out ‘Atrocious’ Jack Sparkes and says 'he deserves to go'

Jack Sparkes found himself picking up a yellow card in the 59th minute of that match – his tenth of the season — resulting in a two-match ban and the left-back facing the very public wrath of his boss. Evans called Sparkes’ performance atrocious, also saying that even without a ban he wouldn’t feature in the next game anyway.

Evans said: “He deserves to go. He was atrocious today, anyway. He wouldn’t have played at Oldham. So, there we go. So he’s out for Tuesday, doesn’t matter to me, because he wouldn’t have played anyway. He was atrocious. Defensively, we were poor today, the whole back five were poor.

“Yusuf [Akhamrich] has many plaudits and Jack Sparkes, too, but they didn’t help the middle three, who were having a very difficult afternoon by their own standards and their own performance levels.”

It’s not the first time a Bristol Rovers manager has laid into one of their own players so publicly. We saw not too long ago another of Rovers' current cohort at the end of a similar rant from then-boss Joey Barton (pictured below), when midfielder Luke Thomas was heavily criticised in a post-match press briefing. It seemed to have a positive effect on the midfielder at the time, with Thomas making a marked improvement in the following months.

Evans will need Sparkes to respond with the same drive to improve and for the rest of the team to feed off that in their fight for survival.

Public admonishment could bring lasting backlash for Steve Evans

Calling out individual players so publicly could have an unsettling impact on the rest of the squad. And Evans will need every one of his players to be wholeheartedly behind him, all pulling in the same direction to avoid a relegation on his CV.

Bristol Rovers have been so poor this season – even under Evans – that any one of his players could be called out for their individual performances at times. And Evans himself has already faced a touchline ban as Rovers head coach, yet he continues to berate officials from his position in the dugout. It therefore is somewhat baffling for the head coach to single out Sparkes on this occasion.

It is always important for the club and the coach to be honest and transparent with supporters. After all, there are no more important stakeholders in the club than the fans, and passion and emotion can often lead us to be a bit rash in the immediate aftermath of a match, but that level of individual criticism should be said direct and in private.

Bristol Rovers now sit just two points above the League Two relegation zone, with their league status seemingly on a knife edge. Survival would likely mean this episode is quickly forgotten. However, should Rovers be relegated, then supporters may well look back at this week as the moment relegation was assured.