Evans Knows It's The Perfect Time For The Spotlight To Be On

Mind drifting to holiday sunbeds, sea and sangria? For Will Evans it’s purely Sutton United - and swimming lessons with his two-year-old daughter!

Chesterfield may not be totally safe but what was looking like an excruciating first National League season looks like it could actually have a happy, positive ending.

Under new manager John Sheridan they’re looking defensively secure, very organised and - according to the centre-back - more entertaining.

The Spireites have the chance to showcase their vast improvement in front of the BT Sport cameras on Saturday lunchtime.

Evans thinks the timing couldn’t be better for the club to take focus and says there’s still work to do.

“We’re not quite there yet,” he told us. “But we’re on the way and we’ve got a good eight point cushion. We’re playing well under the new manager so we don’t see why we can’t keep winning.

“It’s a bit strange not being involved in the race at the top and - hopefully - no longer being involved in the dog-fight at the bottom!

“We’ve had it drummed into us that the last few weeks aren’t to be wasted. Of course making sure we’re safe comes first and we need to get to that point as quickly as we can.

“But you can’t help but look to next season and be excited about it already.

“It will be good to have a little break but this is a League One club in my eyes - and we need to try and get it back into the EFL as quickly as we can.”

In Sheridan, the defender thinks they have the right man in place.

“It was a shame it didn’t work under Martin (Allen) as he is a very experienced football man and over the summer we all really thought the club was going in the right direction,” he adds.

“It’s difficult to answer the question ‘why didn’t it work’ as there’s no one answer. There’s little logic in football sometimes and it’s hard to put your finger on it.
“But since the new manager has come in the first thing he has done is improve things defensively and get us playing in a more entertaining way.

“They are two big things and we’ve kept clean sheet after clean sheet. As a defender that’s what I like!

“Yes maybe you do start to think about how good things could be once he brings in his own players and changes things up a bit. Every manager needs a pre-season to build his team and improve what he has.

“We want to give the fans something to take into the summer break and show them there’s a lot to look forward to.”

A manager Evans has come up against on a regular basis is Paul Doswell.

But he won’t be in the dug-out this weekend as the Sutton manager takes a break for football until July.

“I was sad to read that he’s taking a leave of absence,” Evans said. “I don’t know him personally but I know some of the Sutton players and they speak highly of him.

“His sides are always tough to beat and you know you’re never having an easy game against a Paul Doswell team.

“That won’t change on Saturday, they’ll be looking to get into the play-offs for their manager - but we need the points still ourselves.”

The game will all be shown live on BT Sport 1 and on 4KUHD - kick-off 12.35pm.