COUNTY 0 FOREST GREEN 5

EMBARRASSED Newport County boss Justin Edinburgh admits the Exiles’ New Year’s Day massacre at the hands of Forest Green Rovers was the worst defeat he’s experienced as a manager.

The angry boss also revealed he will haul his players in for training today and to watch the video nasty of the game, despite it being a scheduled day off.

County arguably shaded the opening half an hour but were subsequently put to the sword by Rovers who really could’ve won by a greater margin than 5-0.

“We’ve been properly beaten, badly beaten and it’s a blip, we need to dust ourselves down, it hurts right now, but it’s about the way we respond,” he said.

“We’ve conceded disappointing goals through individual errors, it wasn’t nice to watch and wasn’t enjoyable for our supporters.

“It’s really hard to take for all of us. We’ve all been embarrassed; it was an embarrassing performance.

“I am looking for a response, I expect it and that’s why the players will be in for their day off. When you perform like that you don’t deserve a day off. It’s not so much a punishment, it’s essential, and we need to address things.

“It’s the worst performance I’ve been involved with.”

Edinburgh has vowed to press on with his plans to strengthen the squad but has warned it won’t be simple to land the targets he really wants.

“I’ve made no qualms about that (wanting new signings), we always want to make ourselves stronger, but you need the right players and it’s difficult to do that,” he explained.

“But of course we want to be stronger. For 17 of 23 games this season we’ve been top of the league and it’s hard to do that, but it’s why I’m confident we will bounce back and respond.”