Michael Flynn admits he felt it was a case of ‘two points dropped’ after a much-improved Newport County AFC display during the 1-1 draw with Leyton Orient at Rodney Parade.
The Exiles made a frustrating start to the contest after conceding inside the opening minute. Orient captain Josh Wright swung in a free-kick for Ruel Sotiriou – making his first Football League start – to loop a header over Tom King.
From there, County were a much improved and together unit as they dominated the remainder of the contest, although it took them until the 81st minute to make it count when they found the equaliser.
Mickey Demetriou’s long throw was only half cleared to the edge of the area allowing Scot Bennett to acrobatically send the ball back towards the far post where Padraig Amond was waiting to volley home his 10th of the campaign.
Read the full match report.
Flynn affirmed: “Everyone saw the players were all together, they all put in massive shift as they did at Exeter on Boxing Day. They worked their socks off and that team spirit and togetherness gets them through a lot of games.
“I thought it was two points dropped. There’s only one team who tried to win that football match and that was us.
“I’m absolutely fuming that we gave them the start they had. There were so many things wrong where players switched off and him [Ruel Sotiriou] having a free header.
“At times, what we’d watched recently of Leyton Orient was they play a high line. It goes and throws the game plan out the window when you concede after a minute because they then wanted to go 4-5-1 and have counter attacks.
“It’s so frustrating, you go through everything, you do all the work and it’s just a bit of communication.
“After that, there was only one team who tried to win the football match and a draw was the least we deserved because I thought we were dominant throughout.
“Kingy made two good saves and his kicking was reasonably good for most of the game. He would have been fuming conceding so early because he wants to keep a clean sheet every game.
“It was a great finish from Podge. There was a lot of good play, but we gave them a sloppy goal again. I’ve read the riot act to them in the dressing room because we’ve got to get back to being hard to score against.”