Steve Evans (footballer born 1962)
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Categories: 1962 births | Living people | People from Glasgow | Scottish footballers | Football (soccer) strikers | Bolton Wanderers F.C. players | Clyde F.C. players | Albion Rovers F.C. (Scotland) players | Ayr United F.C. players | Hamilton Academical F.C. players | St. Johnstone F.C. players | Scottish Football League players | Scottish football managers | Boston United F.C. managers | Crawley Town F.C. managers
Stephen J. "Steve" Evans[2] (born October 30, 1962)[1] is a former professional footballer and football coach from Glasgow, Scotland.[2] Evans claims to have played professional football for Bolton Wanderers, Clyde, Albion Rovers, Ayr United, Hamilton Academical and St. Johnstone until a knee ligament injury ended his playing career at 28.[1] After his retirement he became a football manager and is the manager of Conference National side Crawley Town Football Club and has been manager of Boston United Football Club on two separate occasions, he joined in 1998 from Stamford Football Club to start his first spell with Boston United.
Early lifeBorn in Glasgow, Scotland,[2] Evans played football from an early age and was spotted by English outfit Bolton Wanderers when playing as a striker for his local youth football clubs in Glasgow,[3] he joined Bolton after leaving school in his native Scotland.[3] Footballing careerPlaying careerEvans claims to have played professional football for Bolton Wanderers where he failed to break into to first team and was released in 1979. Evans returned to his native Scotland and claims to have joined Clyde, where he played in 36 League matches, scoring 4 goals, supposedly, before leaving the club to join Albion Rovers in 1981, where he had relative success, scoring 28 League goals in 76 matches, a ratio of just under 1 goal in 3 games in his three years at Cliftonhill. Evans joined Ayr United in 1984, but only scored 4 goals in 30 matches and Hamilton Academical in 1985, but only played in two league matches. He joined St. Johnstone in 1985 and scored 6 goals in 24 matches until a knee ligament injury ended his playing career in 1986, aged 28.[1] Managerial careerEvans was originally appointed manager of Boston United in October 1998 after a spell with Stamford.[4] He got Boston United promoted from the Southern League to the Football Conference in 2000 and subsequently to the football league in 2002. Both promotions have since been over-shadowed by revelations of off-the-field cheating.[5] Evans was suspended by Boston United as manager in July 2002 after a much publicised FA investigation about "contract irregularities".[6] He later resigned as manager of the club in September 2002 still suspended by the club.[7] Evans was found guilty by the FA in December 2002 of impeding an FA inquiry into contract irregularities.[8] Evans was also suspended from the game for 20 months in January 2003 for involvement of the affairs of Boston United,[9] in which players contracts lodged with the FA contained false salary details. Evans was further accused of impeding the inquiry and fined £8,000.[5] Evans lodged an appeal against charges in May 2003,[10] but the FA rejected Evans' appeal later that month and the punishment stood.[11] Evans was linked with a shock return to the York Street club in February 2004.[12] and Evans did return as Boston United's manager on February 20 2004.[13] In September 2005, Evans and four other people connected with Boston United appeared in court, denying fraud charges.[14] In November 2005, Evans was given a £1,000 fine, suspended for a year, after admitting to using insulting or abusive words to the match official in a match against Peterborough United in October 2005.[15] On February 11, 2006 was escorted from Grimsby Town's stadium Blundell Park by Lincolnshire Police at half-time,[16] Evans berated the fourth official after being incensed when Grimsby keeper Steve Mildenhall appeared to handle the ball outside his area and was immediately spoken to by a police officer after a complaint of alleged foul and abusive language. He was then escorted from the stadium by the police's football liaison. After the match Boston United chairman Jon Sotnick accused the football authorities of waging a "conspiracy" against his manager.[17] In October 2006, Evans was linked with the vacant Darlington managerial vacancy, but Boston United chairman James Rodwell and Evans both denied the link.[18] After pleading guilty to conspiracy to evade tax, on November 3 2006 Evans received a one-year suspended sentence and a £1000 fine.[19] Despite these events, Evans kept his manager's position at Boston United.[20] In March 2007, Evans was only left with 11 professional footballers for the vital relegation clash with Bury,[21] although had players back from suspension, Evans was left frustrated after players such as Barnsley's on-loan striker Nathan Joynes quit the club, which left him with just 12 fit senior players and he was forced to put 16 and 17 year olds on an incomplete substitute's bench.[22] After drawing 1-1 in their penultimate match of the season against relegated Torquay United,[23], Boston needed a win against relegation rival Wrexham, to avoid the drop out of league football.[24] On May 2, 2007 he was linked to another vacant manager job, the Chester City job,[25] He boasted that he topped a Chester newspaper poll to be the next manager, but the truth was that it was Boston fans voting in the vain hope that they might be rid of him. 
On May 5, 2007, Boston United faced Wrexham in a win or bust situation and things were looking good for The Pilgrims when Francis Green opened the scoring for Evans' outfit who lead 1-0 at half-time, but in the second half United conceded a penalty kick, which Wrexham defender Ryan Valentine converted, the goal which sent Boston United down, two late goals from Chris Llewellyn and Michael Proctor rubber stamped Wrexham's survival and saw Boston lose 3-1. He was busy eating hot dogs and wobbling like a lavalamp at the time.[26] On May 8, 2007, Evans pledged his commitment to The Pilgrims despite their relegation and return to Non-League football.[27] But, on May 27 2007 Evans and assistant his manager Paul Raynor resigned from Boston United after with immediate effect.[28] Evans' two occasions as manager combined at Boston United made him the clubs second longest serving manager behind Fred Tunstall, who had three occasions as manager of the club in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.[29] It is fair to say that Evans left Boston United in a perilous position on his departure, chiefly attributable to his mismanagement of all things financial whilst there. On May 29 2007, two days after resigning from the Boston United managerial post, Evans took over as Crawley Town manager.[30] The reception he got from the Crawley Town faithful was frosty to say that least. So far this season, Evans has guided Crawley Town out of the relegation zone, and up the table, but still the fans remain unimpressed. The crowds have dwindled, and rumours have spread that Steve Evans and Azwar and Chaz Majeeds are breaking the salary cap imposed on the Conference National clubs, in an effort to resolve the players' contractual crisis. Evans has already been sent to the stands three times so far this season. Managerial stats
Personal lifeAs of 2007, Evans was living in the village Eye, Cambridgeshire in the city of Peterborough.[19] He is married to Sarah-Jane, with two daughters Nicole & Shannon.[32] Evans tended to court controversy, while manager of Boston United,[5] these controversies involving the clubs finances and player contracts in 2002, caught up with him in November 2006 and he nearly got sent to prison but instead was given a suspended prison sentence.[19] Also as mentioned above, he tended to court controversy with match officials and was sent from the dugout several times. One of these included a touchline tackle on Wycombe Wanderers' Tommy Doherty.[33] References
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