A FINAL PUSH IS NEEDED - FLYNN
NEWPORT County boss Michael Flynn is hoping two weeks of soul-searching during the international break will give his players time to galvanise themselves for one final promotion push.
Flynn rarely points the finger at his men in defeat, but he had every right to do so after this bitterly disappointing outcome.
Given the luxury of playing on the lush grass of Cardiff City Stadium, they passed the ball about with little or no real purpose, and too often from side to side and backwards, and merely exposed their lack of ability in the final third.
“It’s two weeks to stew on this and I really hope that it hurts them as much as it hurts me,” said Flynn.
“We’ve got 10 games to go and we have to make sure we finish positively.
“We have a little break and need to be working hard because it will be a very busy April and we need to make sure we are on our best form.
“We dominated the ball, it was just frustrating that we didn’t do enough with it. The decision-making in the final third was mind-blowing.
“I’m really frustrated. Our best source of scoring was from Mickey Demetriou in the second half and it’s quite worrying when your centreback is the most creative player you have out there.”
The second defeat of the week was yet another dent to Newport’s promotion hopes, and if they are going to get anywhere in the final 10 games they must find a way to score more goals.
A dozen in their past 13 games is not good enough to take them up.
When they first met Orient on December
12 they were seemingly on course for automatic promotion. After a 2-1 defeat in London it took them another 56 days to win again.
After a second defeat to a team they managed to knock out of the FA Cup, they now face a mad scramble over the next six weeks to get into the play-offs.
Flynn has chopped and changed his frontrunners, and alternated them within games, but they haven’t delivered for him. By the time they return from the international break the service into them needs to have greatly improved and their touch in front of goal must have sharpened.
Nicky Maynard forced a good save out of the Orient keeper in the 16th minute, and then Joss Labadie flicked a header from a free-kick on to the post, but that was as good as it got for the home side.
Orient didn’t create many more chances, but struck just after the hour mark to clinch the points.
Dan Kemp caused problems down the left flank as he cut into the box and fired in a wicked, low cross. There was a crowd of players in front of goal and at the far post Conor
Wilkinson had the simple task of tapping the ball home.
The Irishman’s delight at breaking the deadlock then turned to despair when referee Samuel Barrott saw that his assistant, Andrew Laver, had flagged for offside. He went over to consult with him, but then pointed to the centre circle to confirm the goal.
There was delight for Orient, and no complaint from Flynn about the validity of the goal. His concerns are centred on his side’s lack of creativity.
NEWPORT: Townsend, Demetriou, Dolan (Ledley 57), Farquharson, Shephard, Labadie (capt), Sheehan, Bennett (Ellison 67), Lewis (Telford 67), Maynard (Gamlin 67), Scrimshaw (Taylor 57). Unused subs: King, Amond.
ORIENT: Vigouroux, Widdowson, Happe, Akinola, Turley, Cisse (Kyprianou 45), McAnuff, Clay, Kemp, Wilkinson, Johnson. Unused subs: Sargeant, Ling, Coulson, Sweeney, Dayton, Dennis.