Goalkeeper Tom King was disappointed after two set pieces saw Newport County AFC lose their long unbeaten run at home to Salford City but is already looking ahead.
The Exiles hadn’t lost a league game at Rodney Parade since a 2-0 reverse to MK Dons in February but Cameron Burgess and Lois Maynard headed in from a corner and free kick respectively, either side of a Nathan Pond own goal – also following a set piece – to take all three points for Salford.
The Exiles created numerous chances - Padraig Amond heading wide, Josh Sheehan striking the post and Tristan Abrahams seeing his late penalty saved - but it just wasn’t to be.
King felt the squad did enough to win the game but were undone in two keys moments of the game.
“Tough one to take but we’ve just got to move past that as quickly as possible, put that to the back of our minds and go on to the start of another run,” explained King.
“They didn’t create any other chances, there were no saves for me to make other than the two goals.
“We spoke in the week that they were going to be strong from set pieces and we just didn’t manage to carry out our responsibilities defensively.
“We don’t point fingers, we take responsibility as a team and we all know we can be better for next week and the weeks after that.
“We like to make this place a fortress, we know teams don’t like coming here, we don’t make it easy for teams and I think if you look at the grand scheme of things today we had enough chances to kill the game off, first half and second half.
“Josh hitting the post, Tristan with the penalty but we don’t point fingers.
“Sheehan scores a winner for us two weeks ago, Tristan scores the penalty that gets us a draw against a good Crawley side.
“We’re not a blame culture, we take responsibility as a team. We know that we can create many, many chances, which we showed today and previously in different games that we’ve lost.
“We’ll be looking to tighten up at the back, get our set pieces right and start sticking the ball in the net.”
After back-to-back league defeats for the first time since March, the FA Cup arrives at a good time with manager Michael Flynn and his players travelling to Blundell Park on Saturday to take on Grimsby Town.
The competition has provided plenty of special memories over the last couple of years and King is hoping to play his part in creating more history.
“The FA Cup is always a special competition for this club,” said the 24-year-old.
“I’m sure they’ll be up for it as much as we are but we’ll be looking to bounce back to get ourselves into the hat for the next round and then take that form into the league.
“I think it’s a very passionate competition and we are a team that shows a lot of passion.
“We fight ‘til the very end, we go all the way to the death and I think that embodies the FA Cup.
“We’ll do all that we can this week and go into the FA Cup game full of confidence and ready to make our mark on the competition.”