Steve Evans: Stevenage boss delighted to beat 'biggest team in League One' Derby

Steve Evans has been Stevenage manager since March 2022

Stevenage boss Steve Evans celebrated his 61st birthday on Monday after the early present of a win over the "biggest team in League One".

Boro are sixth in the table following their 3-1 home win over Derby County, twice English champions in the 1970s.

It was a first win in four league games for Evans' side, promoted in 2022-23.

"We went toe-to-toe with some really good players and arguably should have won by more," he told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"We don't fail to recognise that for Stevenage to beat Derby County in an equal [terms] league fixture is for the whole town really.

"They've got top players all over the pitch and probably have more coaches than our coach hire company have."

Evans said it was easier at bigger clubs like Leeds, where he was manager between 2015-2016, and Derby to "cover all bases".

He continued: "It's more hand to mouth here. But we have to find a way to compete at a level we've come up into, where 10 or 12 clubs have been in the Premier League in their lifespan.

"In terms of results, apart from beating a Premier League side away from home in the FA Cup, this is the best result in terms of league fixtures that the club has had."

Free-kicks led to Stevenage's first two goals, the first teeing up Jordan Roberts for a 25-yard strike and the second thumped home by Alex MacDonald.

And Evans was delighted to see Kane Hemmings seal the three points with his first goal for the club.

"He'd missed a chance to make it 3-1 and probably wanted the ground to swallow him up, but the one thing you get from him is that he goes back in, he's prepared to miss - he's got a heart the size of a lion," the Scot added.

"A lot of strikers in our league have hearts the size of what a mouse has got, so they wouldn't have gone back in - he went back in and got his reward."