NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Westley believes the loss of defender Jazzi Barnum-Bobb was the turning point as Blackpool handed his side a 4-1 hiding at Bloomfield Road.

Rhys Healey scored his sixth goal for the Exiles to make it 1-1 after Brad Potts’ early strike had put the hosts ahead.

And home goalkeeper Sam Slocombe saved a penalty from Sean Rigg before Barnum-Bobb was forced off with a knock and replaced by new signing Abdoulaye Meite.

Blackpool then scored three goals without reply in the last half an hour against a defence also missing captain Scot Bennet through suspension.

“It was difficult coming in without the skipper today,” said Westley.

“It disrupted what we did and we’re struggling for defensive ingredients in the squad at the moment anyway.

“Coming in without Benno meant we had to move [Ben] Tozer back, which gave us less strength in the middle of the park than we’d have liked.

“Then losing Jazzi in-game was probably the key moment.

“Losing Jazzi meant we lost that thrust we have down the right hand side and we lost his recovery pace.

“And what we watched for the last half hour after the missed penalty was a team that was a little bit imbalanced.

“We were stretched and lacking in ingredients against a very strong side with lots of quality and knowhow and they exposed us in the last 30 minutes.”