Today see the Imps travel to Mansfield for the much-maligned Checkatrade Trophy. I’m not going to discuss the pro and cons of a boycott, but speaking of cons, it is worth tipping a nod to our old adversary, Mr Evans.
When Marcus Richardson earned us a 1-1 draw with the Pilgrims on 7th February 2004, it seemed like a routine result for us. We’d won 1-0 there earlier in the year thanks to Paul Mayo’s penalty. Those two games were the last times we’d get to face off against Boston without them having the rotund one in charge, because on February 20th it was announced he had found a way back into football. On March 2nd he returned to a Boston side he had managed previously.
He had managed them to two promotions in his previous tenure, both of which were overshadowed by allegations (later proven) of cheating. He was suspended by Boston as manager on 4 July 2002, just a couple of weeks after snatching the Conference title from the hands of Dagenham. He later resigned as manager of the club in September 2002, and was found guilty by The FA in December 2002 of impeding an FA inquiry into contract irregularities. Those irregularities were that players’ contracts lodged with the FA contained false salary details. He was eventually given a 20 month suspension in January 2003., running from the date of his initial suspension. right on cue he was back in the fold.
Whilst he had been suspended Evans took a job working for a recruitment company owned by a businessman called Jon Sotnick. Sotnick was persuaded to put money into Boston United, so Evans return was always pretty secure.
Imps fans often attribute the disdain for Evans to be linked to his treatment of Keith Alexander, but Evans and Keith only crossed swords four times. The first meeting was a 2-2 draw in September 2005, Gazza making an appearance for Boston. The return leg saw us win 2-0, courtesy of Ritchie Hanlon and Simon Yeo. Next season a we had dour 0-0 draw on Boxing Day 2005, notable for nothing more than the cold or the fact City started with seven defenders in various positions (McCombe, Brown, Foster, Mayo, McAuley, Cryan and Beevers). On March 18th he grabbed his first win against the Imps as Lawrie Dudfield snatched a later winner in their 2-1 win. Marvin Robinson bagged a superb volley for Lincoln, but it wasn’t enough to get a win against Evans.
The following season City took a proud unbeaten record to Boston, but former Imp Francis Green gave them a 1-0 win. Before we played them again, Evans had his day in court, charged with fraud stemming from his time as Boston manager.
He was given a suspended sentence for disguising wages and bonuses as expenses between 1997-2002, resulting in £323,000 in taxes being withheld. He received a one-year sentence suspended for two years, with the judge claiming he hadn’t done it for personal gain. At the striker Ken Charlery told the trial he was given a contract which promised him £620 a week plus a £16,000 signing-on fee. Neither the Football League nor the Inland Revenue was ever shown this contract, they were shown a bogus contract which showed wages of just £120 a week and failed to mention the signing-on fee. Charlery told how he was paid his fee in bundles of cash in an envelope, giving birth to the caricature of Evans and his cash in an envelope.
In another documented incident, the former Liverpool defender Mike Marsh was contracted as being paid £100 per week when he was actually earning £1,000 per week. The difference was paid through an expenses account, against which no tax was payable.
Even Melvin Moxon of Boston United Supporters Trust had enough: “The people of Boston were embarrassed, annoyed and fed up with the events of the past five years – the sentences reflect the seriousness of the offences”.
Not long after City finally recorded their first win against Evans on Boxing Day with a 2-1 win. This time John Schofield played the usual number of defenders, one of whom was on-loan Shane Nicholson.
That gives Evans a record of played six, won two, drawn two and lost two against City, scoring six and conceding seven in return. It hardly seems like the basis for intense hatred does it?
Maybe it was his barbed comments towards John Schofield after we snatched away Dany N’Guessan. Evans claimed Schoey was an ‘armchair’ scout, signing the Frenchman because he’d seen him play for Evans. Big Steve was always quick in the media to put down Lincoln City, perhaps jealousy or perhaps just the tactic the brash and pugnacious Scot applies to all of his media work.
Evans resigned his position as Boston’s manager in May 2007, shortly after claiming he would remain at the club. A financially-crippled Boston United were relegated straight into the Blue Square North in June 2007 and then demoted again into the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League a year later. Evans? He came up smelling of roses whichever way you looked at it. His skill with numbers bagged him the managerial position at Blue Square Premier club Crawley Town.
From there we took markedly different paths. He spent five years at Crawley, spending money as if it were going out of fashion, and calamitously he exchanged Football League spots with us in 2011. Since then he’s spent money to get what he wants wherever he has been whilst City have battled back to Football League status. That brings us to today.
This season Evans has kept his comments about Lincoln to a minimum, only seeing fit to mention us when suggesting we paid £750k for Michael Bostwick (divide that by ten mate). Money is the only language he talks, and the only language he listens too. Mansfield are outspending everyone in the division, even sides such as Coventry and Swindon who should have much better budgets. It isn’t achieved by growing the fan base either, just 3,800 turned up two weeks ago to watch them play Forest Green, half the crowd City are currently attracting.
His petulant outbursts in the summer only served to heighten his status as a pantomime villain, as did his purchase of Lee Angol, a player we assumed we had in the bag before he threw wads of cash at the issue. Already tiring of his exciting striker he recently lured Oxford United striker Kane Hemmings to Field Mill too, just to make sure his toy box is over flowing with things he can play with through the season.
His profligacy is our gain however. To make a bold statement when he arrived at Mansfield he froze out Matt Green, a player having so much influence in our early season exchanges. Green would love to be involved tonight, but I suspect he’ll wait until our league clash later this month to exact his revenge.
Bullish Evans may not be targeting the Checkatrade Trophy this season, but he has been forthright in his assessment of their title ambitions: “We have never hidden from it. I see all these managers hiding behind bushes. We have said we want to win promotion and we will do what we can, but we recognise every step of the way how difficult it will be. It is a really competitive division this year, but our aim is to be in the top group.”
In little under 10 months as Mansfield manager Evans has won 16 matches, lost 12 and drawn 10. In his 15 months as Lincoln manager Danny Cowley has lost 11, drawn 13 and won a whopping 43. I know who I’d prefer to have in my dugout this evening, money can buy you player but it doesn’t buy you class, it doesn’t buy you tactical now how and it doesn’t buy you integrity. In the fledgling league table, something I pay very little attention to, Lincoln are above Mansfield by virtue of Billy Knott’s late goal against Carlisle giving us one better goal difference.
I imagine that will already be praying on the brassy Scot’s mind as they enter the fray this evening.
Checkatrade, FA Cup, whatever, I want Lincoln City to win every game, none more so than those involving obnoxious characters such as Steve Evans.
I think most football fans dislike Evans, not just a Lincoln fan. His time at Crawley, a much disliked team has not helped amongst a raft of other things mentioned here. Add in he managed Boston and now at Mansfield and easy to see why we don’t like him.
Last time I saw him in person was outside Southwark Crown court as I left work, which speaks volumes.