Steve Evans committed to Bristol Rovers after being linked with Hibs vacancy

Bristol Rovers boss Steve Evans insisted “I’m not going anywhere” after being linked with the Hibernian job in recent days.

David Gray’s 12-year stint with Hibs ended on Wednesday after losing four of his opening six Premiership matches this term, including his last three.

Evans is one of the favourites to take over at Easter Road but, speaking after his side’s 3-0 loss at Gillingham, he said: “The facts are I’m humbled to be linked to a job like that because if you’re a Scotsman, you know how big a football club that is.

“But as I told our owners, when the news first broke, I’m not going anywhere. I’ve come here to deliver on a project.

“My commitment is to this football club, and I’ve often maintained there’s only one club that will take me to Scotland. And if they ever did ring, I’m in the car.”

James Brophy’s opener and Sheldon Kendall’s late double made it three wins on the spin for the Gills and condemned Rovers to a second straight loss.

Evans added: “We didn’t see the second half coming. I think we probably ended the first half with more possession and more opportunities. We didn’t take advantage of them. Then we seemed to go to pieces after the goal.

“It’s a simple error, simple header, and we miss the header. We are 1-0 down and having to work ourselves back into the game. We need to learn, and learn very quickly.

“They are individual errors for the goals, big errors, and we paid a price. A 3-0 defeat says it. In certain periods of the second half we never won our tackles, challenges, we were second to react and then were scrapping for bits.”

Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth has urged his players to make Priestfield a fortress.

They have won their last two home games without conceding and Ainsworth said: “That defensive unit deserves as much credit as the applause for the forwards who score the goals and get the glory.

“We’ve got to make this place a fortress. They have a super manager by the way. Every single person played a huge part in this.

“Momentum is everything in football, it’s not just results all the time, you need to keep performing at that level and be brave on the ball.

“We are really building something on the training ground, and long may it continue. We need to stay on it and all believe where we are going to go because I believe we have got a good chance of achieving something this season.

“I thought we managed it really well. It was a real squad performance, three on the spin is brilliant.

“We defended really well, I’m really pleased and I hope the fans enjoyed that. They were phenomenal, and I can feel the positivity around the place.”