NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn had a stark warning for his players after Tuesday’s 3-3 draw with Forest Green Rovers – anyone coasting to the end of the season will be heading for the exit in the summer.

County ended their five-game goal drought thanks to a Paul Hayes hat-trick but relegation-threatened Rovers stole a point with a late leveller at Rodney Parade.

The draw means the Exiles have now gone nine games without a win in all competitions and they are now 13th in the League Two table.

Flynn’s men are eight points off the top-seven with 11 matches left to play but the manager is not giving up hope of making the play-offs.

And he won’t tolerate any player who takes their foot off the gas between now and May.

“We’ll keep going and keep taking it game by game,” said the Exiles boss.

“I do feel it was two points dropped and we can’t afford to do that too many more times but we’ll keep going and we’ll give it a go.

“We’ve got another tough game coming up at Yeovil, who are fighting to stay in the league like Forest Green.

“And anybody who is expecting let the season go out with a whimper is not for me,” he added.

“If they want to take it easy and have a nice [relaxed] end to the season they won’t be here [next year].

“They’ll find themselves on the scrapheap in the summer because I’m not about that.”

Flynn felt his side did enough to beat Forest Green with Mark O’Brien, Robbie Willmott, Mickey Demetriou and substitute Marlon Jackson all missing chances to add to Hayes’ treble.

But he did concede that the defence was at fault for all three of the visitors’ goals and that they invited too much pressure in the closing stages, leading to Rovers’ equaliser in the 82nd minute.

South Wales Argus:

“We knew that they’d have some good possession at times because they’re a good team,” said Flynn.

“They strengthened well in January and they’ve improved a lot.

“They’ve got some exciting midfielders and arguably the best strikeforce in the league with Reuben Reid and Christian Doidge.

“So we knew it wasn’t going to be easy but we created enough chances to win two football matches.

“We could have scored a hatful but when you score three at home you expect to win.

“We conceded three poor goals and we missed too many chances.

“I’m frustrated but the players worked and worked and even at the end when they equalised we nearly went down the other end and scored again.”

He added: “There was a time when we were too deep and that’s probably where their third goal came from.

“Trust me, we work on not being deep but maybe it didn’t help with Mark O’Brien going off because he was definitely one who was pushing everybody up and maybe we lost that voice.”