MIDFIELDER Lee Minshull revealed that Newport County AFC manager Justin Edinburgh ripped into the players after Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat to AFC Wimbledon, writes Andrew Penman.

It was the Exiles’ second successive defeat at Rodney Parade following Cheltenham Town’s 1-0 win on Saturday.

And Minshull said Edinburgh was disappointed by the manner of the loss after the Dons struck twice in the final six minutes to seal all three points.

“The manager said we’d let him down, let ourselves down and everyone in the ground as well,” admitted Minshull.

“Since I’ve been here the only way has been up but you’re going to have periods where you don’t win games.

“We’ve just got to all stick together and work hard this week.

“We’ll continue to work hard and hopefully the results will come.”

One crumb of comfort with automatic promotion contenders Scunthorpe United and Fleetwood Town to come to Rodney Parade on Saturday and Tuesday respectively is County’s record against the top teams.

The win over Oxford United last week was the latest example of Edinburgh’s men raising their game against the top sides.

“We’re hoping that is the case again against Scunthorpe on Saturday,” said Minshull.

“We know they’re a good side but we got a good point up there and hopefully we can get the right result.

“With some tough games coming up it would have been nice to put some points on the board,” he added.

“It’s strange; we keep looking at the table and not really going anywhere but the last two games are games you look at and you want to win but we haven’t covered ourselves in any glory.”

It was not the result that Minshull and fellow ex-Dons Max Porter, Ismail Yakubu and Christian Jolley wanted against their former club.

“We’re all really down and disappointed with the end of that game,” he said.

“I thought they’d had a few chances and that was going to be that but we’ve really got to be seeing games out like that and obviously everyone is disappointed.

“We should have taken advantage of the own goal and seen the game out.

“Once they equalise the minimum you want to be walking away with is a point.

“It was against my old club as well but whatever team we would have lost against in that manner I would have been disappointed.”