Evans frustrated not to win as Rovers end their losing run

STEVE Evans was impressed with his side’s performance, but ultimately felt “frustrated” after Bristol Rovers were unable to beat Crewe Alexandra at the Mornflake Stadium, despite playing an hour against ten men.

- WILL MURRAY [e-mail]

Emre Tezgel scored the opener after only nine minutes for Lee Bell's side, but the Gas responded three minutes later through Callum Morton.Crewe were forced to play 60 minutes with ten-men following Adrien Thibaut’s red card for violent conduct on Clinton Mola. Rovers came close to winning the game, with Luke Thomas denied by Sam Waller and Kamil Conteh hitting the post in the 71st minute. Still, the 1-1 draw brings an end to a ten-match losing run in the league - the worst in the club's history.

Reflecting on the game, Evans said: “Yeah, listen, I think it’s a game that in summary in its totality, we go away frustrated, disappointed, because I don’t think there’s any doubts that, as much as we controlled the start of the game and then Crewe scored against the run of play, we got a goal quickly back, which is a sign of a good characters in the dressing room, and then we just totally dominated the whole half, and that was good, and you're looking to build on that.

“But I think in fairness to the Crewe boys for 15 minutes in the second half, I think, early in the second half, they controlled the game, they took over and they seemed to find the extra little pass and they’re technically very good. So, sometimes playing a Crewe side with ten or 11 isn’t really going to be such a difference. But we pulled the boys aside on a water break and someone was down injured and we changed the shape again, and that worked.