New boss Evans meets his Stags squad for first time

He also revealed that he had been one of the managers whom former Stags boss Adam Murray had called upon for advice.

“We met one or two players who were in for treatment as we arrived, but we will meet the squad today,” he said. “There is not time for big speeches.

“The one thing that has happened here is a young man everyone regarded highly, Adam, has lost his job.

“He is a young man who phoned me when I was both at Rotherham and at Leeds to take advice on certain things and player situations and he is someone I have a lot of respect for.

“Someone has lost their job. So there is no reason for big speeches.

“They have lost a coach they thought highly of and you don’t get respect in football, you earn it. So we will meet the players and try to get ready for Saturday.”

He added: “They wanted me to give everyone a chance and the transfer windows dictate that now. So we can come in and really assess it.

“You always pre-judge players because you have them play for you or against you. But we really have the opportunity over the next six weeks to assess them fully.”

Evans’ first opposition will be his former club, Crawley Town (Saturday, 3pm).

“We had massive success there,” he said. “We took Crawley from joint bottom of the Conference to almost to the verge of League One.”