BLAME the players for blowing Newport's hopes of winning the Welsh/Scottish League title that is the harsh reality, says experienced prop Rod Snow, pictured.

Newport's dramatic 17-14 defeat by Cardiff at Rodney Parade on Friday night ended any realistic chances they had of following up their cup final triumph with a championship winning effort.

Newport were leading 14-0 midway through the second half only to fall to a Cardiff rally.

We've got no-one to blame but ourselves, said a disappointed Snow, finishing his sixth season with Newport.

It's not down to the coach or a lack of money or a shortage of facilities or anything else but ourselves. The title was ours on a plate, all we had to do was play to the best of our ability and take it.

But maybe we didn't play with our heads. There is certainly a problem and I don't think anyone can give us an answer. What is so painful is that we are capable of doing it.

Flanker Jason Forster admitted: We're on a roller-coaster ride and we're heading the wrong way.

We were told to show commitment against Cardiff and we did. We had passion and we rediscovered our playing attitude, but we have got to score tries and we just didnt take our chances.

We're broken-hearted and we are hurting just like the supporters. Its been a horrendous couple of weeks. But we've still got three games left, maybe the pressure is off so we can relax and rediscover our form to finish on a high.

It's too late for the title, but we've got to be positive and go to Scotland and pull off a win. It's all about getting into Europe now.

Newport were furious with referee Clayton Thomas, pointing to Shane Howarth being over the line only to be recalled for a home scrum, to the penalising of Ben Breeze going for the line when there was no crossing or interfering and claiming that Hal Luscombe got to the ball before Anthony Sullivan for Cardiff's first try.

And they compare the support of the rival clubs, with Cardiff returning 500 of their 750 tickets whereas a few weeks earlier, for the cup quarter-final, thousands of Newport fans swamped the Arms Park.