Kenny Jackett mulling over Portsmouth return for 'best' set-piece-taker Gareth Evans

Gareth Evans appeared as a 62nd-minute substitute for the below-par Ronan Curtis in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Sunderland.

The long-serving midfielder slotted in on the left of the attacking three – a role he vied with the Irishman for at the tail-end of last season.

Not only does Evans offer Jackett an alternative against Coventry tonight, he also possesses prized dead-ball credentials.

Pompey’s Stadium of Light set-pieces, taken largely by Curtis and Lee Brown, disappointed the Blues boss.

During two years at the Pompey helm, Jackett considers Evans having established himself as his finest dead-ball operator.

And he is mulling over the opportunity to restore the 31-year-old to his team.

Jackett said ‘I think probably the best one and most consistent one has been Gareth Evans.

‘Gareth and Lee Brown have been pretty good, they have been the stand-out ones.

‘Ronan hasn’t taken them much but, to be fair to Ronan, he will always put himself up to do it, which is quite a big thing. He has the determination to go back again.

‘We will see whether Gareth plays. In terms of his consistency of balls put in, I do think he has a very level head.

‘But, similarly, I don’t think Lee has many days like that, he is capable of going through again and putting better balls in from the right-hand side.’

Jackett was deeply frustrated over the quality of set-pieces at Sunderland.

Certainly it’s a feeling shared by the Fratton faithful who watched the defeat.

He added: ‘On Saturday the delivery was poor – and we had a lot of it.

‘The corner count was 5 to 2 in our advantage and we didn’t necessarily use that.

‘Lee’s final free-kick went over everybody when he could have fizzed it in onto the goal and tried to get a deflection or a flick. That summed us up.

'Although Sunderland defended their box well enough, when we had those clear opportunities to put them into good areas, we didn’t.’