He said a small minority of fans looked forward to the chance to attack bad performances.

"You're 90 minutes away from criticism all the time," he said yesterday, Tuesday.

"You can go and win three games like we did before the Woking match then lose one and you're under pressure again.

"The supporters got the right to say what they want but really it's to the detriment of the team and the club. It's almost like they're waiting for a bad result."

And Wilson said Vics boo boys weren't like fans of any of his former clubs.

"I've never come across this anywhere else before. As soon as you lose a home game there's criticism. It's nothing new at Northwich and I don't think it will ever go away. Even when we were fourth in the league in my first season we were coming under pressure. I finished sixth and ninth in my first two years - I think that has only been done twice before in the last 20 years.

Wilson's comments came just days after Martin Filson finally left The Drill Field for Stalybridge Celtic.

"He was hounded out a little bit," said Wilson. "He wasn't in the side and he wanted to be playing. He had to put up with quite a lot of criticism, a lot of which was unjustified."

Vics chairman Rod Stitch admitted things weren't going as well as the club want.

"It's disappointing but it's not a case of us not being good enough. The fans want to be winning, as we do, and it's got to turn round. The squad we've assembled is better than 14th place in the league."

Wilson tried to bolster his squad on Monday with an approach for Macclesfield's transfer-listed midfielder Neil Sorvel. But Vics dropped their interest when the Division Two outift asked for £50,000.

There was a boost with the return to action of Neil Illman and Ian Cooke.

Illman was expected to play some part in last night's match at Hereford while Cooke resumed light training this week and could return in the next fortnight.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.