BOSS Michael Flynn reckons anyone dropped for Newport County AFC’s next match can have absolutely no complaints following a “gutless” and “spineless” performance at Morecambe.

The Exiles dropped to ninth in League Two as a result of Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Shrimps, but it was the manner of the defeat that left Flynn seething.

Grimsby Town visit Rodney Parade this Saturday and Flynn may well wield the axe after he felt Morecambe “bullied” and “outplayed” the visitors to the Globe Arena.

“It was a terrible performance, a gutless performance, a spineless performance,” he said.

“We pulled out of tackles and were beaten up all around the park – I didn’t see that coming.

“I’ve said in the past there’s ways to lose games, and that wasn’t one of them.

“We were just second best all over the park and we got what we deserved, which was absolutely nothing.

“I’ve told them it’s a performance I don’t want to be associated with because it’s not what I’m about.

“I’ve never pulled out of a tackle in my life, we pulled out of about four or five.

“I’m just scraping the surface here because there were a lot of things wrong.

“Our crosses into the box were hopeful, we were second to everything, I could go on.

“There’s things to work on this week for sure.”

He added: “This is something new for me as a manager.

“I hate going back to last season but even in the Plymouth game, when we lost 6-1, we were decent for 40 minutes until we conceded.

“And we never stopped trying, to the point where we actually scored in the 93rd minute.

“I can handle defeats but it’s the way that you lose.

“I felt Morecambe were there for the taking and they just bullied us and outplayed us, and they deserved the win.

“As a player, when a manager turns up at half-time and says he wishes he could take eight of you off you kind of shrug your shoulders and think ‘he’s off again’.

“But now I understand what managers have meant by that in the past – I could have taken eight off.”

Flynn continued: “It’s a reality check. Maybe people have been getting carried away, I don’t know.

“I hope it’s not that, I don’t think it is, because I certainly haven’t been and my staff certainly haven’t been.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board this week and get ready for a tough game next Saturday.

“Of course their places are going to be under threat now.

“Unless it’s Ben White or Joe Day – I don’t think I’ll be dropping those two yet – nobody can say anything if they’re not playing next weekend.

“It would be down to them then to try and win their shirts back.”

Morecambe’s Kevin Ellison maintained his excellent record against County with goals either side of a Scot Bennett leveller.

Ellison’s man-of-the-match display came after Flynn had warned his players of the veteran striker’s threat in the build-up to the clash.

Flynn added: “If they don’t know Kevin Ellison by now then they must have been living on the moon.

“He’s 38 years of age and was running the game again.

“He scored two, okay the second one was a deflection, but you make your own luck.

“It wasn’t just Kevin Ellison, they were better than us all over the park, it’s as simple as that.”