Bristol Rovers will play Salford City on Tuesday night

Bristol Rovers manager Steve Evans discussed Tuesday's game against big-spending Salford City, saying that the Gas had two players in the summer 'in our training ground for talks,' before they decided to join the Ammies.

Salford lost the League Two play-off final against Notts County last season, ensuring they would be in the fourth tier for an eighth consecutive campaign.

This summer, they made the headlines in terms of the profile of the signings they made, with players who have significant experience in higher divisions, including Joe Powell, Brendan Wiredu, Macaulay Langstaff, and Luke Molyneux, all putting pen to paper. Langstaff was a particular surprise given that he spent the previous two seasons at Championship team Millwall.

Despite spending significant money on incomings in the summer transfer window, Salford started the 2026/27 campaign with three straight defeats under new manager, Peter Cklamovski.

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Since then, they have been unbeaten in eight, winning seven of those matches, and are top of League Two with 22 points from 11 games.

They will be looking to extend this run on Tuesday when they visit The Mem, and they will be the favourites on the night, as they face a Rovers side who have lost six out of their last seven games in all competitions, including three consecutive defeats in the league.

When asked by Bristol Live about the importance of utilising the home crowd against Salford following Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Shrewsbury Town, Evans said: "The home crowd know the money that Salford have spent. You only need to look at the players they've signed.

"They've signed the pick, they've picked the best players, and many managers who've played them this season and lost to them have said, they've picked the best players, and they've gone and brought them in, haven't they?

"They've paid them big wages. We know. We had two in our training ground for talks. When you're talking about trebling wages, then you have to understand why those boys would decide to go there.

"You know, they've got a lack of fans, they've got a lack of everything at the football club, in terms of facilities, everything else, but people don't judge you on that.

"They judge you on results on the pitch, and the recruitment of Gary [Neville], and all the people below Gary at Salford have done a great job in putting that squad together."

Rovers supporters will have fond memories of the reverse fixture between these two teams at The Mem last season, with Luke Southwood saving a last-minute penalty to ensure the Gas edged past Salford 2-1.

Ten consecutive league defeats for the first time in the club's history followed this dramatic win, though, and with Rovers on the back of three straight losses in League Two under Evans, they'll know the importance of bouncing back on Tuesday, especially at The Mem, where Rovers have won four of their five league games so far this season.

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