A FURIOUS Justin Edinburgh ripped into his dejected players after Newport County AFC were dumped out of the FA Trophy at Welling United on Saturday.

The County manager was angry and upset by the abject manner of the 2-0 defeat to the Conference South side – their fifth loss in six games.

And he warned that if his players continued to perform as they did at Park View Road they can forget about winning promotion this season.

The Exiles are still joint top of the Blue Square Bet Premier but one win in eight games in all competitions has left Edinburgh in no doubt that something has to change.

“We’re not the best team in this league,” he said. “We are if we work hard. We’ve got to win as a group and we didn’t do the basics.

“We didn’t hustle, we didn’t turn bad balls into good balls and we were short in all areas.

“It’s upset me and angered me. My team reflect me and that hurt.

“We’ve had some bad results of late but we’ve always performed. At Welling we didn’t and we got what we deserved.

“There was a lot missing. In every game we’ve won this year we’ve earned the right to do it and that application was missing.

“We’re not good enough to just turn up and win and if we think we are then you see what happens – we’ll get well and truly beaten.

“For the first time the players have let themselves down.

“We were well short of what we expect and the standards we’ve set in terms of effort, commitment and application.

“We’re disappointed as a group but we’ll dust ourselves off and make sure we use it as a positive – make sure we don’t feel like this again this season.

“The only people who can put it right is ourselves. It’s not by chance that we’ve won 11 games and were top goalscorers in the league but how we got there was by making sure that we work hard together.”

Captain David Pipe was unavailable due to personal reasons but should return for the trip to Gateshead.