Brown: Robins Rollin out of race

PHIL Brown slammed his Swindon side and admitted their play-off hopes are all but over after the ten-man Robins produced a woeful first-half display in defeat to Newport.

Brown saw centrehalf Rollin Menayese sent off in the second period and his team had gone into the break 2-0 down following goals from Padraig Amond and Ben Tozer.

Substitute Paul Mullin got Swindon back into things when the game resumed, but Menayese’s second yellow card ended any hopes of an away comeback.

Swindon are still only three points off the top six but Brown hit out: “I was disgusted with our performance in the first half and I went over to our fans at the end of the game to apologise to every single one of them.

“We seem to have a problem against physical sides, as soon as we come up against them we show no strength of character as a collective.

“Ability can get you a long way in football, but attitude and desire takes you further and I’ve had the players in the changing room for 45 minutes to tell them that. It could have been three hours.”

Passive away defending allowed Amond to open the scoring with a stunning strike as he controlled a cross from David White and volleyed into the top corner. Former Swindon man Tozer then rubbed salt in Brown’s wounds as he nodded home White’s ball to give Newport a comfortable half-time advantage.

Swindon made a double change at the break and their two substitutes made an immediate impact.

Mullin worked Joe Day in the Newport goal and Donal McDermott’s 25-yard strike hit the bar before the two players combined to get Swindon’s first.

McDermott whipped in a cross and Mullin flicked a header home, but Swindon’s momentum was stalled when Menayese saw red.

After picking up a silly booking for a rash challenge, the defender clashed with Matty Dolan and received his marching orders.

Mike Flynn said: “I thought we were absolutely superb in the first half. The players were back to what we do well.

“They did everything we asked of them and it should have been a couple more at halftime.

“I know they had ten for half an hour, but even when they had 11 we were the better side by far and on the whole it was a very good performance. It was a very important win for a great group of players.”