Steve Evans hopes to keep leaders Bristol Rovers challenging for promotion

Tommy Leigh, subbed off at half-time as a precaution due to a fatigued hamstring, scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Evans’ former club Rotherham, pouncing after Bobby Kamwa’s shot had been parried towards the attacking midfielder inside the penalty area after 32 minutes.

Rovers equalled a club record of 10 home league wins in a row but had to hang on in stoppage time to preserve the result.

“We’ve deservedly won but we weren’t at our best today,” Evans said. “We’ve been at our best for the last three games but maybe there’s a bit of fatigue in there because of the run they’ve been on.

“We’ve equalled a club record of 10 home (league) wins, stretching back to Grimsby last season, which is incredible.

“The lads are capable of stepping up and delivering so much more.

“My only disappointment was that we didn’t capitalise on two or three good chances to go two up. That would have made it a lot easier in the second half.”

One negative for Evans was his assistant Paul Raynor’s late red card, as both Rotherham boss Alex Bruce and Raynor were sent off following a stoppage-time melee when the ball went out for a throw-in. Evans was also yellow-carded.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Evans added. “I said to them ‘why did I get a yellow?’ and he (the referee) said ‘because you were involved in it’. I was sat down in my seat and saying ‘what are we doing here?’ and then he’s given me a yellow. There was a stramash between the benches with a minute and a quarter to play.”

Rotherham’s assistant manager Steve Agnew spoke after the game on behalf of Bruce, following the sending-off.

“Listen, we want the ball in quick and they’re trying to stop it and run the clock down…We’ve all been there, so I fully understand what’s gone on,” Agnew said.

“Alex has tried to get the ball and their boy has kicked it out of his hand. If somebody kicked you on the hand quite violently, what would you do?

“He’s disappointed, but it’s just the qualities that Alex has: he wants to win and his team over the course of the season will reflect that.”

Rotherham almost took a point at the death as winger Fabio Tavares hit the crossbar in the final seconds – the closest that the South Yorkshire outfit came to scoring.

“We knew it was going to be a really difficult game with Bristol Rovers top of the league.

“They’re a direct and physical team and they do it well and we had to stand up to that battle – and I thought for large parts of the game we did that.

“The chance at the end when we hit the bar…if that had gone in then the boys would have deserved that.”