Steve Evans today defended fellow Scot Garry Wilson and said calls for the Eastbourne Borough boss to go were “disgraceful”.

Evans’ Crawley side condemned Borough to a 14th game without a victory when they won 2-0 at Priory Lane on New Year’s Day to leave Borough just a point clear of the relegation zone.

Several fans in the main stand criticised Wilson’s substitutions while others called for him and coach Nick Greenwood to resign.

Evans said: “Eastbourne have had four promotions in ten years and their club has done fantastically and yet there were people sitting behind me in the first half shouting ‘Wilson out’ which is ridiculous.

“And Garry tells me that one or two people sitting in the main stand are calling for his head. That is disgraceful.

“Garry has got the club in the Blue Square premier and I see him and Nick out watching games as much as I do.

“Some people think making a change is good and we have seen a lot of it in the Barclays Premier League recently but if Garry walks away from Eastbourne Borough then people might realise that change isn’t always as good as they think it might be.”

While Borough prepare for a long winter fighting the drop Reds are on the up after a third successive away win in December having started the month with just one victory on the road all season.

They are tenth and just five points off the play-offs, although Evans has written off their chances of a top-five finish.

He said: “We’ve not got a chance of reaching the play-offs. We see ourselves above clubs like Wrexham and Cambridge and level with Rushden and Kidderminster but there has to be a reality check.

“We are tenth in the table with a budget that our co-owners said last week was bottom four for this league.

“We are having a fantastic season to still be in the top half of the Blue Square premier and if that continues until the end of the season we will be more than delighted.

“The board would be happy if we finished mid-table but (assistant manager) Paul Raynor and I believe we will finish higher than that.

“If we hadn’t had such a bad injury situation in October and November who knows where we would have been but all the credit for our recent improvement has to go to the staff and players who have been magnificent.”

Reds have reeled off successive away wins at Tamworth, Grays and Eastbourne Borough as well as an FA Trophy victory against Bashley.

There is no secret according to Evans, who now has only Danny Forrest and Chris Giles on the injury list with Forrest likely to be involved in Saturday’s Trophy tie at Chelmsford.

Evans added: “We have got some of our better players back and now we have options.

“Against Eastbourne we felt they would go with five in midfield again, as they did on Boxing Day, and we decided to take the game to them with 4-4-2.

“But the nature of our squad and the versatility we have in the squad means we can change things.”