NEWPORT County boss Justin Edinburgh believes all but a handful of Exiles supporters are happy with where the club are this season – and he’s invited his detractors to come and discuss their gripes.

The Exiles are six points off the League Two play-off spots and perhaps it’s little wonder that Edinburgh was somewhat aggrieved to again find himself answering questions about Newport’s recent run, having won one of their last 11 (albeit with four draws).

He was a little spiky in his media briefing, particularly during the broadcast part, but made clear he’s confident virtually all of Newport’s fans are content.

“There are reasons why things have happened as they have, reasons, not excuses,” he said. “We lost a lot of players, had to endure a lot of away games and then have had a difficult pitch and yes we want to be winning, but there are a lot of reasons for the situation we are in,” he said.

“We are six points off the play-offs and with some people, it’s been hard to please them this season.

“This time last year everyone would have snapped my hand off for the position we are in now going into the last two months of the season, but you can’t please everyone even though I don’t buy into the line of raising expectations.

“Our remit was to stay up and we are actually in a position where we can still make the play-offs and I don’t see a downside to that.

“It doesn’t bother me that certain people are unhappy with what we are doing, I am talking about facts when I detail where things haven’t been so good for us. Do I want the fans to be happy? Of course I do. But I think 99.9% of our fans are happy with where we are. I’m not worrying about the other 0.1%.

“I’m fed up with talking about where we are; soon I’m going to put up the shutters on the matter. If people are unhappy, they know where we play, they know where we train, my door is always open, come and see me and I’ll argue differently.

“I’m not offering excuses. If people think I am they are deluded. A handful of people are not enjoying it but the atmosphere on Tuesday night was brilliant. It was a great gesture from the club reducing the price and the fans responded.”

Edinburgh is also happy the controversy surrounding David Pipe and Mike Flynn is now in the past.

“The situation with David and Michael is clear, they’ve been fantastic, it’s not a decision I enjoyed doing but I’m employed by the football club to make these football decisions,” he said.

“I’ve never ever made a personal decision on one of my players and please God I never have to.

“They’ve both conducted themselves brilliantly while the situation is ongoing and I don’t expect anything else, they are both paid professionals. They are in a good position, a good occupation and even though I’m sorry about the decision I had to make.

“But you’ve seen no-one is frozen out and they’ve always got a chance of playing and being involved.”