Carlisle boss points the finger at Exiles for ‘working the ref’
NEWPORT County manager Mike Flynn believes his team will go into Saturday’s game with Cambridge full of confidence, but first he had to deal with accusations of play-acting from Carlisle.
The Exiles drew 0-0 with Carlisle on Tuesday night and a point was a decent result for Flynn considering the chances created by Newport’s opposition.
After the game, Carlisle head coach Chris Beech accused Newport’s players and, in particular, captain Joss Labadie of attempting to buy free-kicks and conning referee Lee Swabey.
“Newport have got some players who have been around the game and they know how to work the referee. There was constant screaming on the floor and it’s not nice,” Beech said.
“Their skipper has gone rolling around on the floor and he’s a good player. It’s almost like they have no reason to stop doing it unless they get booked.
“Hopefully, they clamp down on it because I think the referees are aware of it. They test the referee with their constant screaming, but I thought he did OK.”
Beech’s comments came after Flynn’s postmatch press conference, but the County boss will no doubt be furious at them. It must be said though there is a degree of truth in Beech’s view.
Newport are sixth after drawing with Carlisle. They are still in the play-off hunt and Flynn remains positive although he admits his team’s chances of automatic promotion are now slim.
Defender Matty Dolan will have to be assessed ahead of the Cambridge game after he was forced off against Carlisle with a head injury.
Flynn said: “Carlisle are a good team and I’ve no problem giving the opposition credit.
“They have pace going forward and look to hit you on the counterattack. They are strong and have a midfield three who run all day.
“I thought it was a fair result. I think they edged the first half with their chances, but we were the better team in the second half and we tried to win the game at the end.
“In the second half, we swung the momentum back and it was a hard-fought point.
“We have got another huge game on Saturday now and the confidence going into that will be high because we finished on a high.
“It was a solid point gained, we can still finish on 80 points, and we will try to get there. It’s going to be a tall order to get automatic promotion, but hopefully we will finish as high as we can.”