Newport County boss frustrated after 3-1 defeat at Colchester United

County began on the front foot at the JobServe Community Stadium as Tristan Abrahams secured a fifth-minute lead with his fifth goal of the campaign.

But the visitors failed to build on that perfect start and allowed Colchester to take charge of the contest.

The Exiles dropped deeper and deeper into their own territory and the hosts turned the match on its head before the break with goals from Ryan Jackson and Ben Stevenson.

Courtney Senior added a third to wrap up a comfortable home win 15 minutes from time and condemn Flynn’s men to only their second defeat of the season in League Two.

“Believe me when I say we didn’t set out to sit deep,” said the manager.

“But we got the goal and we ended up sitting so deep.

“It’s not us. We can’t do that. We’re better when we’re up in their faces and having a go at them and we need to get back to doing that.

“When eight or nine of their players are at eight out of 10 and probably only two or three of ours are, then you’re up against it,” added Flynn.

“They’re very good, attacking-wise. We knew we could hit them on the counter, we worked on that and it worked well.

“But we just made a few wrong decisions and it cost us.”

Joss Labadie dropped to the bench in Essex with Flynn confirming that it was a tactical decision to start without the skipper.

And County will have to do without him at home to Salford next Saturday after the midfielder picked up his fifth yellow card of the season as a second-half substitute.

“Labadie is suspended now,” said Flynn. “It is what it is. It’s out of the way now.

“There were a few others at the end who didn’t want to put a challenge in. Ryan Inniss didn’t want to get sent off and Josh Sheehan and Danny McNamara are both on four [bookings].

“You’re treading a tightrope and the officials were very inconsistent so we had to be careful.”

Read more: The talking points from Colchester United 3 Newport County 1