Steve Evans has vowed to display usual levels of passion during Saturday’s clash with Rotherham United, insisting "I’m not got to change" as he prepares to face his former club for the first time.

Evans spent three-and-a-half successful years in charge of the Millers, leading them from League Two to the Championship during that time and securing their status in the second tier last season.

The Scotsman made an emotional exit from the New York Stadium in September before taking up the Elland Road post last month, but Evans says his loyalties will only be in one camp on Saturday.

“I’m not going to change,” he said in his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon.

“I’m going to fight and challenge and head and kick every ball, that won’t change and I can remember taking Rotherham United down to Crawley Town and we scored a late goal with a substitute.

“I celebrated the way a manager should celebrate that day, though I don’t think the pitch at Crawley has recovered yet!

“I would be hoping I would get a positive reaction from the Rotherham fans and they will certainly get an applause from me.

“It’s the first time I will have seen them and I will be the first to applaud but what the Rotherham United supporters do in return is of course their decision.

“I will also applaud the Leeds United fans as they are the team I will be fighting for come three o’clock.”

The head coach added: “I have been in love with every club I have managed and I am in love with Leeds United Football Club.

“I was in love with Rotherham, a club that will always be in my heart and I can’t say anything different.

“When I leave this world, some of the special times I had with those supporters and with a great chairman down there, and that club in general, will be with me forever more.

“I’ve got to try and get a percentage of that type of success at Elland Road and I know what it means to the people in the city here. I know what it means to this football club after being out of that top division since 2004.

“I know what it would mean to be even challenging remotely to getting close to it.”

On facing his former employers for the first time, Evans added: “I think every game is a big game but whether it be a player or a coach, when it comes against an old club and one that was there so recently in my life, then it adds a little bit extra to it.

“But you don’t get any more than three points for winning it and a point if you share the spoils.

“We have to remain focused with what happens and certainly from an opposition point of view, I know very much what’s in that dressing room in terms of playing staff.

“I know what’s there and this is a dangerous game for us after back to back to wins so we need to be fully focussed and prepared.”