Hednesford Town 3 Newport County 2 .

TIM Harris has warned his Newport County players they cannot turn on character and desire when they feel like it after the Exiles slumped to their second defeat in three days.

Relegation-threatened Hednesford Town were 3-0 up at the break - but second-half strikes from Martin Paul and Jeff Eckhardt brought a bit of respectability to the scoreline for the Welshmen.

Harris fumed: "The first-half performance was embarrassing and totally unacceptable. There was a huge lack of character and desire last night - my players cannot just turn it on when they feel like.

"I hope the defeat has dented my players' pride, because I'm certainly hurting. "But, to our credit, we did battle back well in the second-half and never gave up."

Hednesford, battling against a second successive relegation, were in no mood to accept such a fate and their opener in the sixth minute at Keys Park proved their determination.

Stewart Airdrie's powerful run and cross saw Pat Mountain struggling to reach it and Stuart Lake was able to stab the ball home from close range.

Other than a Billy Clark glancing header from a Steve Cowe corner and Cowe's own volley in first half stoppage time, the opening half was dominated by the home side who doubled their lead when Andy Brownrigg powered in an unstoppable shot from all of 25 yards and more after 21 minutes.

County looked disjointed and unable to raise their game before the break and, despite it having a hint of offside about the original move, they gifted the third goal in the last minute of the half. Neil Davis looked to be the wrong side of the half way line as the ball was played to him but, after Mountain had made an excellent save, slack positional play and marking saw Davis have a second chance with which he made no mistake.

Tim Harris was bold in his half time approach, changing the formation and he was rewarded. The replacement of Scott Walker and Steve Cowe with Darren Ryan and Raith Plant saw the team lifted and looking to compete.

The pressure was being turned up on Hednesford and, after Martin Paul fired into the side netting, the former Bath City striker reduced the arrears with eight minutes left.

Ryan's corner had home keeper Mark Gayle in difficulties and Paul scored with a spectacular volley.

Gayle then denied Paul once more but, on 90 minutes, but with quite a spell of stoppage time to follow, County made the final score in greater doubt. Darren Ryan hoisted the ball high in from the left and Eckhardt, who had worked tirelessly all evening, got his reward with a powerful header that left Gayle rooted to the spot.

There was even time for County to go within a whisker of grabbing a draw when Gayle again had to deny Paul and Darren Robison's teasing lob from wide was headed away.

Hednesford Town: M Gayle, S Lake, R Lucas, M Haran, M Gardiner, L Barrow, A Brownrigg, D Rae, N Davis (L Brown 72), A Ajetunnobi, S Airdrie (W Thomas 87). Sub: D Francis.

Newport County AFC: P Mountain, D Robison, S Benton, B Clark, A Thomas, N Davies, M Rose, S Walker (D Ryan 46), J Eckhardt, M Paul, S Cowe (R Plant 46). Subs: R Edwards. Booking - A Thomas - 8 foul. Attendance 602.