MANAGER Michael Flynn and his Newport County AFC players have been saying for weeks that they need to put a run of results together, but back-to-back league defeats was not what they had in mind.

The Exiles were unlucky to go down 1-0 at promotion hopefuls Plymouth Argyle after an impressive performance last week.

And they moved to within 90 minutes of Wembley with a fine win over Leicester City under-21s in the Leasing.com Trophy three days later.

But they were booed off following a desperately disappointing display against Cambridge United at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

It was a low-quality game with both sides struggling to create clear-cut chances on a difficult playing surface and it looked like ending in another stalemate after the 0-0 draw between the sides at the Abbey Stadium in August.

Injury-hit County were the ones making most of the running with Jamille Matt forcing goalkeeper Callum Burton into a smart save in first-half stoppage time and Joss Labadie twice going close.

And the goal came against the run of play midway through the second half when Tom King could only parry Paul Mullin’s shot to Victor Adeboyejo, who teed up midfielder Liam O’Neil for his first goal since April 2017.

But, once they were behind, Flynn’s men rarely looked like getting back into the game and Cambridge comfortably held on to record their first win on the road since September.

South Wales Argus:

U’s interim head coach Mark Bonner made it six points out of six since he replaced the sacked Colin Calderwood and he felt his side fully deserved the victory.

“We came to win,” said Bonner. “I said in the week I expected us to get points and I wanted to win the game.

“We are delighted to go home with the win and three points.

“It wasn’t pretty and we would have liked a bit more quality in our performance and a little bit more control with the ball but I saw what the surface here was like. They made it very difficult for us and we had to defend our box brilliantly.

“We wanted to stay out of the box as much as possible and we managed to do that by staying as high up the pitch as we could.

“It’s so hard because you can’t get a press high enough up the pitch. We had to keep winning the first contact but they screw you in and it’s so hard to deal with another restart, another free-kick, another throw-in or another corner.

“You are constantly having to defend but, from our point of view we defended it really well.

“Callum Burton hasn’t had to make too many saves. He made a brilliant one just before half-time and it got us in and 0-0.

“After that you know you are going to have to give a heck of a lot.

“I said to the boys at half-time it’s all well and good being like that in the first-half but the grit and drive and backbone was excellent.

“Games are won and lost in the second-half. We suffered to win this game.”

Not half as much as the Rodney Parade faithful suffered on Saturday.

They will be desperate to see their side return to winning ways against Walsall tomorrow night and County know they need three points to restore the belief that there is still much to play for this season.

County: King, Demetriou, Inniss, Howkins (Abrahams, 73), Leadbitter (Khan, 65), Sheehan (Amond, 26), Bennett, Labadie, Green, Matt, Willmott

Subs not used: Townsend, Woodiwiss, Gorman, Waters

Referee: Lee Swabey

Attendance: 3,336 (129 Cambridge)x