Rhys Evans

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Rhys Evans : biography

27 January 1982 –

Rhys Karl Evans (born 27 January 1982) is an English professional footballer. He is a goalkeeper, who won two England under-21 caps.

Born in Swindon, Wiltshire, he began his career with Chelsea, where he stayed five years without playing a game, but had loan spells at three other clubs. In 2003, he moved to his hometown club Swindon Town, where he ended up playing more than 100 games in three seasons. In his final season at Swindon, he won all the club’s player of the season awards, but following their relegation to Football League Two, he turned down a new contract offer and instead signed for Blackpool. However, he fell out of favour after less than a year with Blackpool, and initially moved to Bradford City on loan, before he returned to London, with Millwall on a short-term contract. After his contract was not extended, he returned to Bradford City. Despite keeping 17 clean sheets, he left at the end of his first season and moved on to Bristol Rovers and Southend United.

Honours

Blackpool

  • League One play-off final winner: 2006–07

Club career

Chelsea

Evans started his career in 1998 at Chelsea, with whom he stayed until he was released 2003, having never played a single game. During his time at the club he was sent out on loan to Bristol Rovers in February 2000, with whom he played four games; Queens Park Rangers from November 2001 to April 2002, making eleven appearances; and Leyton Orient from August to November 2002, playing seven games. He also had a spell on trial with Bournemouth before the start of the 2002–03 season, where he impressed, but instead opted to join Leyton Orient.

Swindon Town

In August 2003, Evans attracted interest from another Premier League club Bolton Wanderers, but instead joined his local club, Swindon Town, on a free transfer.

He made his debut for the club on 12 August 2003, in a League Cup match at Southend United, which Swindon won 3–2. His league debut came on 30 August 2003, in a 2–2 draw against Blackpool. He remained the club's first-choice goalkeeper for the rest of the 2003–04 season, missing just one match with a back injury. The following season, 2004–05, Evans remained the club's first-choice goalkeeper until April 2005 when he was dropped for the first time after a match against Luton Town, although he was installed back in the team after just one match out. With his contract running out at the end of the season he turned down a move to Leeds United and instead signed a one-year contract extension with Swindon. 

The 2005–06 season began for Evans with a knee injury, when he was forced to play early matches in pain as the club had no back-up goalkeeper available. When Swindon signed Tom Heaton on loan from Manchester United until 2 January 2006, it allowed Evans to have exploratory surgery on the knee. He also spent time at Lilleshall rehabilitation centre before his comeback to the first team in late 2005, when he again established himself. The season ended in relegation for Swindon Town to Football League Two, and Evans won a clean sweep of all the club’s "player of the season" awards.

Blackpool

With his contract again up at the end of the season, new Swindon manager Dennis Wise, offered Evans a one-year contract, which Evans turned down as he wished to play at a higher level than League Two. On 1 July 2006, he signed a two-year contract with Blackpool on a free transfer.

Evans made 39 consecutive appearances in the 2006–07 league season. On 27 February 2006, he was dropped by Blackpool manager Simon Grayson in favour of then on-loan Paul Rachubka for a match at Oldham Athletic, in which Rachubka kept a clean sheet in a 1–0 win. In April 2007, Evans picked up a hernia injury that required surgery. This kept him out of the side until May. Both the on-loan Rachubka and Blackpool’s third-choice keeper, Lewis Edge, also suffered concurrent injuries, which led to Blackpool bringing in Manchester City’s Joe Hart on loan as an emergency stand-in.