DANNY Wilson has launched an impassioned defence of Vincent Pericard after the striker was subjected to abuse from his own fans on Saturday.

Despite Town beating high-flying Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, certain sections of the County Ground crowd turned on the 28-year-old as he was substituted.

And Wilson insists any criticisms about the former Juventus and Portsmouth man are firmly misplaced.

“He (Pericard) had a very good game and I don’t know what the problem was. I don’t know what people were seeing,” the boss told the Advertiser ahead of tonight’s FA Cup clash with Crawley.

“You ask the two Sheffield Wednesday centre-backs if they enjoyed it, and I don’t think they will have.

“Vince is a terrific team player and what he needed was a standing ovation coming off, and not people wanting him to come off.

“It’s difficult sometimes because the fans do make changes, quite honestly. What happened on Saturday was Vince lost a bit of confidence and after that we had to make the change.

“And I was annoyed I had to make the change.

“All we want is support, and certainly Vince wants support. I think he’s got it from 99.9 per cent of the place and he’s certainly got it in the dressing room. He’s got it in bundles with me.”

Town entertain Crawley tonight in a second-round replay and Wilson is determined to progress to the third round, where they will face a home game against Derby County.

“We’ve got to make sure we treat them with as much respect as we did Sheffield Wednesday, and if we do that then we should come out on top,” he said.

“Crawley are two leagues below us and may have spent a lot of money, but I expect us to beat them and make this a very tough place for them to come.

“We had a very emotive game at their place where everybody outside of Swindon expected us to be knocked out.

“All the barbs were coming out about us not doing certain things and not being up for it and that we would get knocked out.

“Well, we were up for it and we will be up for it again on Tuesday night, and I expect us to get through.”

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