Mansfield Town

The 54-year-old Scot, a winner of nine promotions, was unveiled yesterday at a packed news conference at One Call Stadium.

And writing in Saturday's match programme, the club's owner John Radford said the home attendances should shoot up following the news: "This appointment underlines the club’s high ambitions and will generate huge excitement in and around the Town. I also want and expect the attendances to rise as we enter into this new exciting era. 

Speaking at the news conference yesterday, Mr Radford felt that, after Adam Murray’s departure, it was time to move on from the club’s habit of appointing from within the setup, particularly when a manager of the calibre of Steve Evans was available. 

“We’re an ambitious club and Steve’s an ambitious manager,” Mr Radford said. 

“In the past we’ve always looked to someone already in the club, and obviously they’ve needed to have had some success here first. 

“We knew Steve was out there and I had his number, I thought I’ll give it a shot and give him a call. I managed to get the meeting with him and it all happened so quickly.”

Mr Radford knew the club had to act swiftly, with Evans a manager in high demand, and left their Monday evening meeting impressed with the manager-to-be.

“We got on really well, he could see our ambition and we could see his. 

“We knew there were other clubs interested and we knew he liked Mansfield, we played on that a bit too, and we knew the passion was there.”

At Evans’ unveiling on Wednesday afternoon, the former Crawley Town manager was quick to praise Mr Radford and declared his influence as the reason for joining.

“It was nice to hear he chose Mansfield because of me, but it’s not just me, it’s because of our fans and our setup behind-the-scenes. 

“He knows Mansfield fans are excellent and he wants to drive the club forward and we’ll be here cheering him on.”

Evans was also quick to speak of the prospect of promotion at Mansfield, with the Stags currently three points outside the play-off places and the chairman shares the new manager’s beliefs and says the current squad that has been built has the potential to succeed.

“I love the confidence and I hope he can achieve promotion and I definitely think we can. 

“It’s the same as Steve says, he has to evaluate what’s here and no-one’s going to lose out or anything. Adam has put together a quality side and they now have to prove themselves until January (when the transfer window opens) where we can sit down and look forward.”

Now Mr Radford is looking forward to seeing the new manager’s impact in his first game at One Call Stadium, with the Stags taking on Evans’ former side Crawley Town on Saturday and the chairman says he will back his man all the way.

“I’ll give him time and he’s an ambitious manager. If he can achieve what he feels he can he’ll have my support.”  

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