NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn admitted his side’s away form is not good enough for a place in the play-offs after defeat at Northampton Town on Tuesday night.

An 88th-minute strike from substitute Joe Powell condemned County to their 12th defeat on the road in League Two this season.

It leaves Flynn’s men 13th in the table with 10 fixtures remaining – eight points below seventh-placed Colchester United with a game in hand.

“I’m not even thinking about the play-offs,” said the Exiles boss afterwards.

“You won’t get in the play-offs with away form as bad as ours.”

County have just one away win in the league since September.

After Saturday’s 3-0 thumping at Colchester, they produced a much-improved performance at Sixfields but that was no consolation to the manager.

“It’s disappointing,” said Flynn. “We lost the game. I thought we played well but, again, it’s [what you do in] both boxes.

“I’ve just said it to the players; away from home we haven’t been good enough in both boxes.

“I thought it was a very good away performance and we’ve gone and lost the game.

South Wales Argus:

“We had enough chances to win it, but it’s the business end of the season and I don’t really care how we play if we win. It’s about getting the points on the board.

“I don’t want taps on the back saying ‘you did well’ – we lost the game, so somewhere along the line we did something wrong.

“It wasn’t hard to be better than Saturday,” he added.

“I thought we were very good, but we’ve lost the game.”

The winner came from a long throw into the box that was only half cleared by first Mark O’Brien and then Mickey Demetriou before Powell arrowed a half volley into the top corner from 20 yards.

“We could have got someone on the edge of the box to mark him,” said Flynn. “Somebody didn’t do their job.”

Read more: Match report from Sixfields