Rotherham United boss Steve Evans reacts to abuse from Mansfield Town supporters

The Scot used to manage the Stags and watched his Millers side give up their 100 per cent record of December wins through a first-half goal. Mansfield supporters booed him, taunted him about facing the sack and, in some instances, sang a song that referred to him dying.

The boss was visibly stung by what had happened as he spoke to the media after a result that saw the visitors slip a spot in League One to 18th position when a fourth successive victory would have pushed them close to the top 10.

“Some of the words today ... oh my dear,” he said. “They've got no place in society, never mind in football. I wonder if the people singing them should be in society.”

He described travelling fans as “brilliant” even though there were boos from a near-sold-out away end following the final whistle.

A strong wind ruined the game as a spectacle as Rotherham fell to a first-half goal from Deji Oshilaja that gave the 10th-placed home side their first league triumph on their own soil since October `5.

Striker Sam Nombe tried a clearing header but only succeeded in letting the ball skim off his head into the path of the Stags centre-half who produced an emphatic finish

Evans claimed his side were worthy of an equaliser after the break even though they never fashioned an attempt on target.

“I think our supporters have seen us attack in numbers in the second half,” he said. “Five or six times we've gone six v four, but that final ball into the box wasn't there.

“We tried to change it. There were four or five players up front at the end. It wasn't to be.”