Tempers boiled over when rival managers Gary Alexander and Micky Collins clashed at the end of Ashford’s defeat at Sevenoaks on Saturday.

United boss Alexander had to be restrained after reacting angrily to something Collins did after the final whistle.

He said: “I don’t really want to comment on it. He did something which was a little bit disrespectful, I felt it was disrespectful and I let him know it was disrespectful.

“That’s as much as I’m going to say on that. I’m not one of them to go commenting.

"It’s done and he’s apologised, so obviously something was done. If you’re apologising, you’ve obviously done something wrong.

“It’s done. I’ve known Micky a long time but to do what he did was out of order and I reacted to it. I think anyone would.”

The bust-up came at the end of a bizarre afternoon which saw Nuts & Bolts supporters protest against Collins from a vantage point outside the ground.

They had travelled with a large banner bearing the slogan ‘love sprinklers, hate Collins’ in reference to an incident which happened more than a year ago.

Ashford were due to host Sevenoaks in the 2017 Roy Vinter Shield but Collins claimed the 3G pitch at Homelands was unplayable and refused to play.

This season, United have gone nine games without a win and have dropped to 13th in Bostik South East.

“Performances are going in the right direction,” said Alexander. “We’re just not taking our chances.

“Nine games without a win – it’s the first time in my managerial career I’ve had to deal with something like this, so it’s a good learning curve.

“Fans want to win games but they’re going away thinking ‘how haven’t we won that game?’

“It’s just getting that little bit of luck which will turn the corner for us.

“Hopefully, that comes sooner rather than later. We’ll keep working hard and trying to put that right. If you look at the table, we’re not that far off."

Ashford have signed right-back Jerald Aboagye from Folkestone Invicta , allowing Ollie Rowe to play in his favoured position centre-half.

United are without a game on Saturday, their next game is against Horsham in Bostik South East at Homelands on Saturday week (November 3).