Steve Evans talks to www.themillers.co.uk...
Steve Evans was back at his desk this morning working on potential recruits ahead of travelling to take in this afternoon's League One match between Coventry City and Crawley Town, the latter due at the New York Stadium in a fortnight.
You have had chance to look back over the game with Crewe Alexandria, your reflective thoughts?
When you watch the match back in detail via the DVD it often shows you a number of things that gives you a different viewpoint from what you thought watching the match live.
It is evident we were a notch down with our passing and therefore we were not as stylish as we normally are. The DVD demonstrates very clearly that instead of being level at the interval we should have been in front, but we carried no luck as the first half Alex Revell header that hit both posts showed.
My players did show a real desire, a real passion to win a football match and we did that. We have a squad of men who I am proud to work with and they love playing at Rotherham United. We only want players who want to work hard and embrace every day they come to work. It is also massively important that those players live and prepare properly, when it is anything else they have to be moved on.
Back to the match, we finished very strongly, once again the fitness levels in the squad were top class. I was especially pleased for Lee Frecklington, I love the kid. He never stops working and both his goals were expertly taken. It was a day where the lads all showed some great character and desire, that with a real willingness to win made all the difference.
What did you think of the debuts of Miles Addison and Tom Hitchcock?
I thought both did really well for us. Big Miles never lost one header all afternoon and he never shirked one challenge, indeed he had several superb interceptions as the visitors broke with pace. He will come on for this match and will only get better, he is certainly a good addition to the squad.
Young Tom Hitchcock came on and made a real big difference to the match. He has recently been on loan at Crewe Alexandria and immediately it looked that they were very worried about the kid. He made some great runs, received the ball and moved it intelligently, as a result he had a big impact in us scoring our third and fourth goals, it was a super wee debut.
Can you update us on where we are in respect of possible player recruitment?
What I can tell you is that we are working very hard to add some quality players to the squad. I am not at liberty to discuss what players we are trying to recruit; there hopefully by the end of the window will be some new Millers.
I work hand and glove with my Chairman on this; he has been nothing short of fantastic. For life to be good we both need to be winning football matches and we all know how difficult that is in League One, it really is a huge step up on last season. The Chairman and myself want what our fantastic supporters want and that is quality winning football, we are trying our best to add the quality we need.
Can you update us on the injury situation?
Craig Morgan was out suspended yesterday but will be out for another two or three weeks as has a small piece of floating bone removed. It is a minor procedure so it is short term he will be missing.
Danny Hylton is a week away from full fitness and other than that we have everyone available.
What is on your schedule for the week ahead?
It is a hectic time; there is just not enough hours in the day with so much going on. Today I am off to a match and tomorrow we have a reserve match plus of course there is the training schedules plus player recruitment work. It really is busy but I love working for this football club and trying to improve the team.