Steve Evans looks forward to transfer window after Bristol Rovers draw at Crewe

Steve Evans says he would be happy to fast forward to the January transfer window after the veteran manager steered lowly Bristol Rovers to a first point in 11 games at Crewe.

Evans is ready to make changes at the Memorial Ground after taking over from Darrell Clarke, who paid the price for a 10-game losing sequence.

While the battling draw took the Gas out of the bottom two and pointed to better days, Evans was left frustrated his side failed to press the advantage after Crewe’s Adrien Thibaut was red carded in the first half.

Callum Morton’s first goal for Rovers cancelled out Emre Tezgel’s opener for Crewe and the visitors went closest to winning the game when Kamil Conteh hit a post late on.

Evans said: “As much as everyone is looking forward to Christmas, I am looking forward to January to make this club more like what I want it to be. I’m proud to manage this football club. Paul Raynor (assistant) has been telling me about this club for years and years.

“If we can deal with the immediate problem then we can be a really good club in this division. There are some good players in our dressing room, but they just need a bit of help.

“We are frustrated and disappointed as we showed good character after Crewe scored against the run of play and we then totally dominated the first half.

“To be fair Crewe took over for 15 minutes in the second half and they are technically good so playing 11 v 10 isn’t going to be such a difference. But we changed our shape, got on top of the game and we had two really good chances that we should have scored and hit the inside of the post.”

For Crewe’s leading scorer Tezgel it was the third consecutive game on the scoresheet as he dispatched a classy first-time strike from the edge of the box in the ninth minute.

But Morton finished a long through ball helped by the dithering of James Connolly and keeper Sam Waller three minutes later.

After Thibaut was handed a straight red for lashing out at Clinton Mola (30), Crewe received another attacking blow when Tezgel hobbled off when failing to recover after a collision with Rovers keeper Luke Southwood.

Southwood may have been fortunate to escape with a booking after he handled outside his box during a spell of frantic Crewe second-half pressure. But it was Evans’ men who carved out the better chances.

Injury woes have contributed to Crewe’s recent dip in form and with only one win in their last six games it was a let down for a bumper 9,000-plus festive crowd.

Alex boss Lee Bell, though, was pleased they saw the effort put in by his players.

“It was a really good effort to get as many fans as possible in and they could see a really committed bunch of young players,” said the manager.

“I thought the players were outstanding and ran themselves into the ground. But Adrien can’t do that and give the referee the opportunity to send him off, although some of the decisions after that were hard to understand.

“We scored a really good goal and the opportunity was there. If it had been 11 v 11 we’d have won the game.”