Bristol Rovers manager Steve Evans delivered one of his most scathing rants to date following the club's defeat to Cambridge United as he singled out one of his own players for being "atrocious".
It was another afternoon to forget for Rovers, who currently sit five points above the League Two relegation zone with 31 games played.
Joe Quigley gave Evans' side a glimmer of hope at the Abbey when he equalised from the spot shortly before half-time, but promotion-chasing Cambridge soon put the game to bed through Ben Knight and Kelland Watts.
Evans was in no mood to sugarcoat his side's defeat and after the full-time whistle, he ripped into full-back Jack Sparkes for picking up his 10th yellow card of the season.
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As a result, Sparkes will miss Tuesday’s game against Oldham, although the former Exeter, Portsmouth and Peterborough defender wouldn't have featured anyway, according to his furious manager.
"He deserves to go. He was atrocious today anyway," said Evans.
"He wouldn’t have played at Oldham. So, there we go. So he’s out for Tuesday, doesn’t matter to me, because he wouldn’t have played anyway," added Evans, who has never been one to hold back. "He was atrocious."
Evans proceeded to namedrop some of Sparkes' teammates as he lamented their defensive display.
"The whole back five were poor," he said. “Yusuf [Akhamrich] has many plaudits and Jack Sparkes, too, but they didn’t help the middle three, who were having a very difficult afternoon by their own standards and their own performance levels.”
"We were beaten by the better side. Comfortably beaten. We didn’t help ourselves enough," Evans continued.
“The performance looked a little bit disjointed, a little bit nervy. Cambridge are a top three side, aren’t they? And they’re a good side, and they’re probably playing with a lot of confidence, particularly here at the Abbey."
Earlier this week, Sparkes was full of praise for Evans, who recently led Rovers to back-to-back wins for the first time since September.
"He’s just got us really running," the 25-year-old said on Evans' impact since being appointed in December last year.
"That’s been the focus in the last however many weeks he’s been in. All of that effort and hard work. I think you can see that since he’s been here that we’ve always given it a go in games, and the effort has always been there as well."
Sparkes added: "Not to say that it wasn’t the case under Darrell Clarke, but he’s probably put a little bit more emphasis on that."
Topics: League Two
Jack Kenmare