Eastbourne Borough boss Garry Wilson admits his side were rocked by the incident which saw Danny Knowles break his leg and get sent off during the 4-0 defeat at Kettering.

Borough had matched Kettering until the 37th minute when Knowles brought down Jean-Paul Marna in the area and was shown a straight red card. Knowles then had to be stretchered off and it was later confirmed he had broken his leg.

Goalkeeping coach Dean Lightwood took over in goal but could not keep out Marna's spot kick or a second penalty the striker converted before half-time following a handball by Ben Austin.

Borough's misery was complete when Marcus Kelly and James Jennings made it 4-0 in the second half but they remain above the drop zone after Gateshead lost at Ebbsfleet.

Wilson said: "I felt that if we could have got in level at half-time we would be okay.

"The first half was fairly even up to then. We had chances and they had chances but just before the goal they upped it a little bit.

"What happened to Danny was a big turning point. I wasn't overly happy with the way we had played up to then but I thought we had done enough to get in at half-time level and then we could regroup.

"After that it was always going to be hard but I thought our effort with ten men in the second half was good."

Wilson also admitted he did not know whether the rules allowed Borough to bring in a goalkeeper on an emergency loan for the final game of the season against Oxford.

He added: "We'll have to check to see what the rules are. Otherwise we'll have to go with Dean but he had a slight strain after the game."