Steve Evans warns Bristol Rovers face ‘dog-eat-dog’ relegation fight

Bristol Rovers manager Steve Evans acknowledges his side are in an even bigger fight to hold on to their EFL status after their 2-0 defeat at Oldham.

It was a third straight loss for Rovers who find themselves just one place outside the relegation places.

Evans remarked: “I said a couple of weeks ago just because we had won a game, we are not out of this – we are in it.

“You see some of the results tonight – Newport going to Salford and winning and Harrogate going to Barrow, who had beaten Colchester, and winning.

“It is dog eats dog and it’s going to be tough, and this is going to go until the end of the season.”

Evans was highly critical of his side after Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Cambridge but took positives from their display at Boundary Park.

He said: “Anybody who watched the game will have seen it was harsh and not a Cambridge performance.

“It was a good performance, but we have nothing to show for it.”

Oldham took the lead after 35 seconds when Kane Drummond netted one of the quickest goals of the season in the EFL.

Mike Fondop sealed victory just short of the hour. His penalty, awarded for handball by Joel Senior, was brilliantly saved by keeper Brad Young but the striker fired home the rebound.

Dissecting the game, Evans said: “We conceded an early wonder goal, a fantastic strike and then wobbled for five or 10 minutes.

“We got to grips with the game and had three glorious chances – you cannot have better ones than those, which could have made it 3-1 at the interval but we were 1-0 down.

“We showed the same dominance in the second half, had all the play and were attacking. The home fans were quiet as it was a dominant away performance.

“We missed another gilt-edged chance, and they broke and won a penalty which I don’t think it was after seeing it four or five times.”

While Rovers sit just outside the bottom two relegation places, Oldham ended a four-game winless run to cement their mid-table position.

Manager Micky Mellon praised his side, saying: “It was a hard-fought and an important win against a difficult opponent.

“We were made to work really hard for it and it was a whole team effort, including the lads who came off the bench played their part, which was important for us.

“To score a couple of goals, the first one was a cracker, and a clean sheet backs up the result at the weekend (a comeback draw at home to Fleetwood).”

There was also praise for Drummond from Mellon, who said: “He has bags of energy, bags of threat and he just needs to add goals to that which he did tonight.”