The official was at the heart of a contentious match on Thursday night

Welsh referee Craig Evans has been met with support after hitting back from online abuse from a supporter.

The official was in charge of Thursday night's Super Rygbi Cymru clash between Llandovery and Ebbw Vale at Church Bank. The game was overshadowed by an incident in the first-half, when Ebbw Vale were reduced to 14 men after a red card for second-row Curtis Gregory.

The lock was shown a straight red for an appalling act of violence, having stamped on the leg of Drovers captain Joe Powell.

Referee Evans stepped in immediately in the 35th minute and delivered his verdict, telling Ebbw Vale's captain: "We have a stamp by this player. I did ask the question if anything aggravated it.

"My AR (assistant referee) didn't see anything. It's a stamp on the leg. Red card. Permanent."

The incident has been widely criticised, with the footage going global.

However, closer to home, one Ebbw Vale fan took issue with some of Evans' other decisions on the night - despite the club coming back to win in the end.

One user on X wrote: "Craig Evans, you f*****g bottlejob!

"Yellow needs to come there. Double figures for the game, back to back in the red zone."

However, the referee wasn't having any of that, quoting the now-deleted post with a response of his own.

"(T)hanks for tonight's game review and positive comments mate," posted the referee.

"I’ll certainly take absolutely none of them on board."

His tweet was met with some positives replies.

Former Wales centre Tom Shanklin said: "Brilliant response."

Ex-Ospreys fly-half Shaun Connor added: "Great game butty, well done."

Another user responded by saying: "Need more of this to silence the X numpties! Well put!"