Ex Files - Wayne Evans
Friday, 27th Jul 2007 21:16

Wayne Evans is one of our all time leading appearance makers.

Player Profile: Wayne Evans

Name	Wayne Evans
Position	Right Back
Date of Birth	25th August 1971
Born	Abermule
Height	5'10
Weight	12'02
Signed for Dale	Walsall - 02.07.99
Fee	Free transfer
Debut	Cheltenham 0 Dale 2 - 07.08.99
Other Clubs	Welshpool Walsall Kidderminster
Left Spotland	09.05.05

Dale Stats

	League			Cup			Total
Season	App	Sub	Goals	App	Sub	Goals	App	Sub	Goals
2003-2004	41	0	0	5	0	0	49	0	0
2003-2004	45	0	0	4	0	0	49	0	0
2002-2003	40	0	0	7	0	0	47	0	0
2001-2002	43	0	0	8	0	0	51	0	0
2000-2001	45	0	2	4	0	0	49	0	2
1999-2000	46	0	1	10	0	1	56	0	2
Total	260	0	3	38	0	1	298	1	56

As footballers go, full backs don't really tend to attract attention. Indeed, its only if they have the world's most ridiculous moustache, like a certain Gary Neville, that anyone even notices them.
Certainly at Dale, if you ask any supporter to reel off a list of Dale full backs, and it will be a list of players who should have been investigated by the Fraud Office for pretending to be footballers. It's always the bad ones that we remember at Spotland.

But that's there role in life. Full backs are the footballing equivalent of being a drummer. They fill a purpose, and you only notice their mistakes. You could take it a stage further and and say that their only purpose is to make the opposition wingers seem better than they actually are. How many times have you walked away from the game, and said anything positive about an opposition full back?

More often than not though, it's been our own full backs who get the full treatment. And the right back slot was one where we had especially suffered over the years, and to list the chief culprits would simply exonerate those not mentioned.

And then along came Wayne Evans....

His career had been pretty unspectacular. He was discovered playing Welsh football and signed for Walsall. He spent six years at the Bescot Stadium, until an injury hit final season saw him released after 229 appearances for the Saddlers, all of which were at a higher level.

Then new manager Steve Parkin was quick to make Evans his first signing for the club, and at a stroke, twenty odd years of right back nightmares disappeared immediately.

The Abermule born defender went on to spend six seasons at Spotland, and wasn't far off being an ever present throughout that time. Without any doubt, he became the first name to be on the team sheet, such was his reliability.

His first season saw him play every game, and almost uniquely for a player in his position, he scooped the lot at the Player of the Season do at the end of season, with a number of trophies.

And so his time at Spotland continued. He may not have gathered many more awards, but he carried on being Mr Reliable at Spotland.

His strength was being in the right place at the right time. He was solid in the tackle and typically no nonsense. And he was flexible enough to fill in as a central defender as and when required. There's a recurring memory of Evans, face full of panic, somehow appearing in the box as the last man, making up for a centre half's error and somehow rescuing Dale when all looked lost.

Goalscoring was not his strength with just four goals to his name throughout, and two of them had more than a touch of fortune about them, after a forty yard shot with all the ferocity of a back pass was too much for Carlisle keeper Glennon in our 6-0 thumping of the Cumbrians, and another at Darlington saw it rebound off a post, a defender and a keeper on the way in. Guess they all count.

His final game saw him almost add to that tally, as a McCourtesque run saw Evans stumble his way through the Oxford defence, and with just the keeper to beat, he narrowly put it wide to much laughing from his team mates.

But his total of 298 appearances puts him well up with the greats in terms of longevity with the club, and throughout that time, he never let us down.