Maidstone manager Harry Wheeler defended his actions after a touchline argument with one of his own supporters.

Wheeler reacted to what he described as "abuse" from a Stones fan by the dugout in Tuesday night's 3-1 defeat against Eastleigh.

There was a heated exchange after Wheeler's initial attempts to reason with the supporter fell on deaf ears.

Stewards eventually stepped in and led the supporter away.

Wheeler says he was happy to have a discussion but took exception to the way he was spoken to and has called for respect.

He said: "He voiced his opinion and I tried to speak to him gently and he didn’t want to do that.

"You’re always open to have a conversation but we’re not open to take abuse.

"I think he was out of order.

"There’s a way to voice your opinion and there’s a way not to voice your opinion.

"You’ll get no respect back from us if you don’t give it the other way.

"You can ignore it if you only want to say something negative back.

"If you want to try and discuss why they think their opinion, then you can speak to them."

Wheeler is yet to win in six home league games as Maidstone manager and his side are third-bottom with almost half a season gone.

Fans stayed at home on Tuesday night, with an attendance of 1,570 their lowest of the season.

Many left after Eastleigh's third goal and there were boos at full-time after a second defeat in four days, following Saturday's 5-2 thrashing at Havant.

Wheeler has called for unity and said: "You need everyone on side.

"They forget how good we’ve been for three or four weeks and then we’ve had a rough two games.

"But we’ve also got to give them something to cheer about and sing about and we haven’t done that for two games.

"I’m sure a lot of them that were here were all there on Saturday, so they’ve seen that and they’ll be bitterly disappointed and I totally understand that."