RAGING Newport County chairman Chris Blight, pictured, last night fired a fierce blast at the club's miss-firing players and management after the sorry 4-2 home defeat by Sutton United in front of nearly 1,100 fans.

"I am not prepared to accept it," fumed Blight. "On paper we have one of the strongest sides in the division and to take one point from the last three games is just unacceptable.

"I want to apologise to the fans who turned up because they have done what we asked and the players have let them down with their performances in the last week.

"They know and the management know that as chairman I am not prepared to allow this club to fail. "I am extremely angry because I don't want people walking away from the game thinking that it is just 'the same old County' because it is not the same old County.

"This board have worked extremely hard to get players in who can get us up to the top end of the division and to watch us get stuffed at home is just not on. "

County crashed 3-1 at Hayes last Wednesday and drew 2-2 at Thurrock and Blight warned management duo Peter Nicholas and Glyn Jones that if results do not improve, the heat will be firmly on them.

He said: "The clock is always ticking and I have told them that the last seven days is not something that we are willing to put up with and it has to get better.

"We know the London clubs have a bigger area to get their players from, but they are working on a fraction of the budget that we are on.

"The majority of the Hayes side were under 24 years-old and none of them had played league football. These clubs get crowds of fewer than 300 and I am not prepared to allow our fans to have to put up with shocking displays like those."

He added: "The board work tirelessly and don't get paid a penny and we have increased the budget to bring in the likes of Jason Bowen, Roger Freestone and Jonathan Coates and on paper we have one of the best back fives in the league.

"The fans have really got behind us and to give away goals like the ones we are doing just now is disgraceful. He added: "It is going to take hard work because Newport County are not going to get any luck. We are not a lucky club, we lost our league status and went into liquidation all those years back so we can't rely on being lucky.

"It will take sheer hard work to make the business of this football club successful, because, at the end of the day, our business in on the park.

He added: "We now have two massive games in the next two weeks (Bognor and Basingstoke) and we demand to see an improvement."