Kingdom of Evans

EVERYONE in football, it seems, has an opinion about Steve Evans, but few of them have experienced the Mansfield Town manager first hand.

Luke McCormick, who will lead Argyle out for Saturday’s Sky Bet League Two at the Stags’ One Call Satdium, has. The Pilgrims goalkeeper and captain made two appearances for Boston United – the other Pilgrims – in the autumn of 2004, when Evans was manager of the then League Two side.

Since then, he has taken charge of Crawley – where current Argyle assistant manager Craig Brewster was his right-hand man – Rotherham and Leeds, before being appointed by Mansfield after Adam Murray was sacked following Argyle’s FA Cup win there in November.

“I know the way he works,” said Luke. “He’ll have all the lads chomping at the bit to get going. He demands a lot from his players so they’ll be a different sort of side to the one that we faced in the FA Cup earlier in the season.

“He’s a taskmaster, that’s for sure, and he’s a very passionate man. He doesn’t concern himself with what others think of him. 

“He knows the way to get the best out of players. His cv speaks wonders for himself; he’s got plenty of promotions on his cv and no doubt he’ll be looking to do that this at Mansfield this season.”