NEWPORT County AFC manager Jimmy Dack admitted his side’s hopes of reaching the League Two play-offs suffered a big blow with defeat at Southend United.

The 2-0 reverse at Roots Hall was a third straight loss for County, who are down to ninth in the table.

The Exiles also lost Max Porter and Ismail Yakubu to injury on a miserable night in Essex.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Dack. “It’s a hard place to come, Southend, but we’ve got to play better than that.

“We conceded a poor goal just before half-time and then we go and concede an early goal in the second half.

“We picked up one or two injuries as well but we’ll keep working hard and keep fighting until the end.

“We’ve got three games to go and we need three wins now, without a doubt,” he added.

“It’s not good at this stage of the season that we’ve lost three on the bounce.

“We haven’t gone out there to lose three on the bounce. We’ve had a hard run of games.

“I think the effort’s been there but obviously the results haven’t.”

Substitute David Tutonda and striker Aaron O’Connor both hit the woodwork in the second half but Dack’s men failed to find the net for the third successive match.

“He should have scored but that’s been the story of our season; we don’t take enough chances,” said the Exiles boss of O’Connor’s miss.

“If he scores that we’re still in the game but it wasn’t to be.

“You can’t always blame the strikers,” he added. “I think with our final ball we’re lacking at the moment; that bit of quality in the final third.

“But sometimes you also want your strikers to get you a goal out of nothing and that don’t seem to be happening.

“We’ve got honest strikers here that work hard but we’re probably lacking that 20-goal-a-season man.”

County host Dagenham & Redbridge at Rodney Parade on Saturday and will be hopeful that they can patch up the walking wounded in time.

“Yaks has got a slight hamstring injury and Max Porter has a toe problem,” explained Dack.

“We seem to have picked up quite a lot of injuries. Yan [Klukowski] has put his shoulder out and Lee Minshull has been playing with a knee injury, which flared up again on Saturday.

“We’re hopeful that Lee might be back but Yan is doubtful.”