Stevenage manager Steve Evans sincerely hopes Crawley Town can "sort themselves out" and has told them to go for an experienced manager.

The Sussex club shocked most people and angered their fans when the new owners sacked manager Matt Etherington and assistant Simon Davies on Thursday, after just 32 days in charge.

The 3-1 loss at Stevenage saw the travelling fans make their feelings very well known for the majority of the match with a litany of scathing songs against WAGMI United.

They then proceded to sing and protest outside of the gates , next to the team bus at the end.

But Evans, who spent five seasons with the club and who had his name chanted by the Town fans, has urged for a bit of calm and common-sense

"I hope Crawley Town sort themselves out," he said. "They are a club that is deep in my heart and they will never go out of my heart.

"I had some of the best days of my life at that club.

"My brother still lives there, Paul Raynor still lives there and whenever I’ve gone to Crawley, either privately or at games, I’ve always been treated well.

"I really hope the new owners get an experienced manager in and a bit of support. 

"Just give the owners the chance to do what they’re going to do and if it doesn’t work out, then the fans can do what they have to do because they are the real owners." 

The timing of the sackings and the confusion over what Crawley were going to do and who they were going to play, made life hard to predict for the hosts.

But a 10th-minute strike from Jordan Roberts and a Carl Piergianni double gave Boro a comfortable success. 

Evans said: "It was always going to be strange. We can’t stop our staff and our players from reading about the situation at Crawley. 

"We asked them to ignore it but sometimes it gets in your head. 

"But I thought we played really well in patches, not so good in others. Our quality was missing at certain times but you cannot fault what they have given us. 

"They are an incredible fit group so we’re really pleased. 

"In the second half we asked them to protect the ball a bit more and be more careful when we made our runs. We’ve never used those phrases before. 

"We couldn’t win. It could only be an upset and bad news for Stevenage, with three-quarters of the league having a wry smile, or we’d be professional and do our job. 

"We did that. 

"The bits of quality we showed, we either scored or created gilt-edged chances. 

"But we’ve got three points and we’ve done our job and now we have to be ready for Gillingham."