Steve Evans post Notts County...
Rotherham United manager Steve Evans was delighted with his side’s performance, that saw them book a place in the FA Cup third round. The Millers scored a convincing 3-0 victory at League One side Notts County with Ben Pringle, Mark Bradley and Daniel Nardiello getting the goals.
“The performance was good. We were disappointed that it went to a replay but we didn’t go away and say that the game was anything other than competitive and hard, and it was competitive and hard tonight.
“We have won by three, it could have been six or seven, but we would have taken 10-9 or even a scrappy 1-0. If there has been any better teams at Notts County this season then point me in their direction.
“When we play like that then we are difficult to deal with. I think we played even better than that against Gillingham and lost, football is a strange game. We are not kidding ourselves, we have come to a good League One Notts County side and beaten them, but I think it is the manner in which we beat them which was as comfortable an away win in the cup as you wish to get. That is testament players performance, which was excellent.”
After being withdrawn at the weekend, Pringle opened the scoring tonight in some style, and it was the workrate of the midfielder that pleased his manager.
“It was a great strike but he is capable of that isn’t he? He was poor on Saturday so we took him off but we took him off with a view to having him fresh for this evening. I thought the energy in the team was great, people know we have good players but we have worked hard on the training ground, and when we work as hard as that we will always be in games.”
Evans made two changes to the side that won at the weekend, with one of those, Jack O’Connell, coming into the side at left-back, and impressing in his first professional start despite being withdrawn towards the end.
“It was just cramp. The young lad has come from academy football where our scouting staff has seen him, they work round the clock going to games every night. We never sweat when we lose a player because we always know where another player is, but that is our job. I think we have had five left-backs this year, but everyone seems better. I think young Jack and his family will go home tonight and be proud of his performance.”