Why Steve Evans thinks a Rotherham United's Jonson Clarke-Harris could bag a special treble

The summer signing got off the mark with a goal in last weekend's home win over Huddersfield Town and goes looking for more at Charlton Athletic on Saturday.

Clarke-Harris twice finished as the division's top scorer in his time with Peterborough United and Evans is backing him to contend for a memorable treble as his fitness improves following an injury-interrupted pre-season.

“Jonson will be at the top end of the goal chart as it’s what he does,” the boss said.

Evans believes the centre-forward is one of the Rotherham players who will benefit most from a four-week lull in Tuesday-night fixtures that will allow the squad to train harder.

“Jonson's probably at 75-80 per cent right now,” he said. “When he gets that sharpness that you get with training rather than pounding pitches and playing, he'll move to another level.

“These midweeks when we have no game give us that opportunity.”

Evans was pleased with what he saw last Saturday from Clarke-Harris who lasted for 85 minutes at AESSEAL New York Stadium and opened his account with a well-taken 77th-minute penalty.

“I don’t think the Huddersfield players will have got on the coach and thought they had a good day versus Jonno,” he said. “They'll have thought that it was a battle.”

Rotherham don't play again on a Tuesday until they head to Cambridge United on October 1

“Until the Huddersfield game, we'd had one or two players below form,” Evans said. “The only way you get those players back to form is by working with them on the training ground.

“We've had limited time to do that because it's been Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, which kills you a bit.

“We've been crying out for some free weeks to get some work into the lads rather than play, recover, play, recover.”