He joined St Johnstone in 1985 and scored six goals in 24 matches before a knee ligament injury ended his playing career in 1986, aged 24.

[2] Evans fell out of football following his retirement, and was working in sales for Budweiser,[7] when he became manager at Peterborough League side Gedney Hill.

[12] Evans was suspended by Boston as manager on 4 July 2002 after a much-publicised Football Association (The FA) investigation into "contract irregularities".

[15] Evans was also suspended from the game for 20 months in January 2003 for involvement of the affairs of Boston,[16] in which players' contracts lodged with the FA contained false salary details.

[22] On 11 February 2006, he was escorted from Grimsby Town's stadium Blundell Park by Humberside Police at half-time,[23] after he berated the fourth official after being incensed when Grimsby goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall appeared to handle the ball outside his area and was immediately spoken to by a police officer after a complaint of alleged foul and abusive language.

[25] Also in October, Evans was sent from the dugout after an altercation with Wycombe Wanderers player Tommy Doherty[26] for which he later received a £1,000 suspended fine from the FA.

[32] Francis Green gave Boston a 1–0 half-time lead, but in the second half United conceded a penalty kick, which Wrexham defender Ryan Valentine converted.

Evans stated afterwards "I think we have done our football club proud and we wanted to go away with some respect" and "We have had a fantastic run in the competition and we could not have wished it to finish anywhere else".

[41] Despite this, Evans was named October Manager of the Month after achieving five wins, including a 5–2 away victory at AFC Wimbledon, strengthening their push for a second consecutive promotion.

[42] Evans left Crawley on 9 April 2012 to be appointed manager of fellow League Two club Rotherham United on a three-year contract.

[43] In September 2012, Evans was given a six-match stadium ban and fined £3,000 by the Football Association after being found guilty of "using abusive and insulting words and behaviour" towards a female member of Bradford City's staff, an incident which occurred during his time at Crawley.

[45] Starting the following season in League One, Evans continued to produce good results, an honorable mention being the 6–0 win at home against Notts County.

[46] Rotherham were promoted later that season in May 2014, drawing the play-off final 2–2 over 120 minutes, and subsequently beating Leyton Orient 4–3 in a penalty shootout.

[47] On 29 May 2014, Evans agreed a new three-year contract with Rotherham, live on Sky Sports News,[48] a deal which would commit him to the club until 2017.

Evans wore a sombrero, shorts and sandals to the fixture against Leeds United at Elland Road on the final day of the season by way of a celebration.

[51] On 19 October 2015, Evans joined fellow Championship side Leeds United on a rolling contract until the end of the 2015–16 season, with the option of a second year, replacing previous head coach Uwe Rösler.

[54] After the final game of the 2015–16 season against Preston North End, a tearful Evans proclaimed that he had a 'gut feeling' that his contract would not be renewed by club owner Massimo Cellino.

[69] On 9 January 2022, following a 4–0 home defeat to Ipswich Town that left the side 22nd in the table, seven points from safety, Evans was sacked by the club.