Stevenage are more than prepared for the inevitable backlash after Cheltenham Town sacked manager Wade Elliott.

With just one point from their opening eight League One games, the Robins decided to call time on Elliott's tenure on Wednesday.

And the Boro boss knows that would have been a very hard decision for their board, after spending time with some of them during the 3-0 loss at Peterborough United on Tuesday.

Evans said: "I know Wade was very highly thought of in the boardroom down there. 

"I was very fortunate to be in the boardroom at Posh before the game and I know they were very pro-Wade. 

"It’s really difficult when a manager loses his job and from one manager who's lost his job before to another it's, get yourself away going on holiday for a couple of weeks, come back refreshed and take on a new challenge. 

"Our challenge is Cheltenham on Saturday.

"There's always a reaction and I think the players will have a fresh voice. 

"There will be a freshness and desire to win the game and no team ever wants to play another when they've just lost their manager. We saw it with Charlton. 

"But we had a shape in our mind before going to the game the other night and we couldn't really change our thoughts because the game became false with the early sending off. 

"But we still probably saw enough in three or four minutes to realise what they were trying to do and what they would have been trying to do over the 90. 

"So our game plan is already in place, it is the personnel we will decide on in the next 24 hours." 

Kevin Russell has been put in temporary charge and he will inherit a squad that is better than the league position says according to Evans.

The Boro boss said: "Cheltenham have got really good players, really good players for the level, they just looked short of confidence. 

"I looked at a full rerun of the Cheltenham game with Exeter and it was game on for long spells. 

"So there's not a lot wrong with that Cheltenham squad. There's not a lot wrong with that team other than they're on the back end of a decision or on the back end of a result. 

"But we need to go there and work as hard as we possibly can and try and remain on the shirt tails of the league leaders."

Playing a side at the foot of the table didn't always go to plan last season, with draws at Gillingham and Hartlepool United as well as the shock loss at Rochdale.

Evans, however, is confident in his squad.

He said: "We know that on Saturday, and every other Saturday, there will be results that will raise an eyebrow. 

"Who would have thought on Tuesday night that Portsmouth would have been 3-0 up at Barnsley at half-time? 

"These things happen but we'll rely on the troops in there and those troops will go into battle. We've got every confidence in them. 

"We're playing really well. We played really well against Charlton, certainly for the first 60 minutes, we played really well against Carlisle, should have been out of sight, and we played really well against Portsmouth and should win the game, and we were brilliant away at Leyton Orient. 

"The boy’s are in good form and the nice thing from our point of view is that we've got good competition coming back to help us in terms of making sure that those boys are deserving of the shirts." 

The decision over whether any of the injuries will have fully cleared up will be decided 24 hours before kick-off but there could be a couple involved thanks to a midweek friendly.

Evans said: "Some of the boys have been on the training ground all week but [we need to have a think about] whether they need another week to for us to be sure they are OK. 

"We played Wimbledon here in a behind closed doors game, the first-team players that were available got the first 60 minutes, which were controlled. 

"We then used the last 30 minutes to look at our youth team players against a strong Wimbledon side. 

"But that was [a good exercise] because it gave minutes to players that are coming back in, players that need it 

"We're very close to having some big, big players back like Luther James-Wildin and Terence Vancooten and Aaron Pressley. 

"We'll determine whether they are ready post training tomorrow."