NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn has offered his own personal apology to Bradford City as the club continues to investigate offensive chanting at Rodney Parade about the Bradford fire tragedy.

Bradford issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the “repulsive chanting” from a small number of fans during County’s 2-1 win over the Bantams last Saturday.

The Exiles responded by stating that they "apologise unreservedly" for the “abhorrent behaviour” of some fans.

And, following Tuesday night’s 4-2 defeat at Grimsby Town, Flynn added his own personal apology to Bradford and their manager Stuart McCall.

“I think the club have handled it exceptionally well,” said Flynn, who played for the Yorkshire club between 2009 and 2012.

“They are doing all they can to make sure that the individual and the other people involved are banned from this football club.

“And I’d like to say on my behalf that I’m very sorry for what was said because Bradford is a club that means a lot to me.”

Flynn spoke last week about his connection with Bradford and McCall, whose father was badly burned in the 1985 tragedy that led to 56 deaths.

“I loved my time at Bradford, being able to pull on the shirt and to captain them as well,” said the Exiles boss.

“And Stuart McCall was the reason why I signed for Bradford. He’s somebody I’ve got so much respect for.

“He’s a fantastic man on and off the pitch and anyone who’s played for him will say the same.

"He’s somebody who I can’t speak highly enough of. He’s a top man.”

South Wales Argus:

Reflecting on the defeat at Grimsby, which leaves his side 16th in the League Two table, Flynn said: “I’m frustrated. We played some really good stuff and we created a lot of chances.

“But we conceded too many poor goals and if you go away from home and concede four, the likelihood is you won’t win the game.

“The number of chances we created is positive,” he added.

“We’ve gone from a couple of games where we weren’t really creating any clear-cut chances to creating quite a few opportunities. We just weren’t able to put the finishing touch on [enough of] them.

“We’ve got to try to bounce back now. We’ve got another tough game at Oldham [on Saturday].”

Captain Joss Labadie will miss that match as begins a two-game ban after picking up his 10th yellow card of the league campaign at Blundell Park.

But Flynn is pleased to have George Nurse back after injury.

“I thought he was excellent for the first hour,” he said. “They couldn’t live with him.

“He tired towards the end and I would have liked to have put Ryan [Haynes] on with George ahead of him but we [made different changes and] threw caution to the wind going for it.”

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