Steve Evans embracing underdog mentality as Stevenage win again

Posted Sunday, August 13, 2023 by PA

Stevenage boss Steve Evans is hoping to use doubters as motivation after seeing his side defeat Shrewsbury 2-0 at the Lamex.

In Boro’s first home game in League One since 2014, new signing Aaron Pressley struck his first goal for the club with a sweeping finish before Jamie Reid secured the three points in the 87th minute when he poked home at the back post.

But Evans did not let himself get carried away after a second straight league win.

“Our mission is really tough,” said Evans. “I heard one of the Shrewsbury lads say to one of my staff, ‘Good luck staying up’.

“That’s probably where people see us in the league. So we have that as a bit of an incentive for ourselves.

“We have to be, if nothing else, the hardest working team in this league, because we can’t spend the money that Shrewsbury spent, for example.”

Having already welcomed a host of fresh faces, with six new arrivals in the starting 11 against the Shrews, Evans said he expects to announce another signing imminently.

“We’ve got players really battling hard to cement a starting place. I said to them we’ll hopefully strengthen in the next 24 hours,” he said.

“I’ve been asking his manager all summer if we can get him and when I spoke to him yesterday, he was like most of the lads we’ve already got in the door.

“He said, ‘I want to come, I want to be part of it. When can I sign?’.”

Meanwhile, new Shrewsbury boss Matt Taylor questioned whether an already busy schedule contributed to a below-par performance in Hertfordshire.

The Shrews travelled to Elland Road on Wednesday evening, where a spirited performance was not enough to prevent a 2-1 loss to Leeds.

Taylor said: “Was there the fact that the players haven’t had a day off this week? They’ve trained, they’re tired? Maybe.

“I’m not looking for excuses. I’m just telling you the truth. We’ve had a tough week in terms of fixtures. Has that had something to do with it? I don’t know.”

And while Taylor felt it was important to analyse what went wrong, the 41-year-old was equally determined to make amends against Burton on Tuesday.

“I think it’s important to go back and digest without emotion what happened today,” said Taylor.

“But I felt we never really got going in terms of the way I want the team to play and the way we have been playing for the last two games.

“But why football is such a great game is that regardless of the result, we’ve got an opportunity in three days’ time to make sure we can put that right.”