NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn says Joss Labadie will remain club captain – but slammed the midfielder after his costly red card at Oldham.

The Exiles suffered a 3-2 defeat at Oldham Athletic after having to play for the majority of the game down to 10 men after their skipper’s dismissal after 14 minutes.

The midfielder lashed out at Marcel Hilssner when the score was 1-1 and his teammates couldn’t hold on for a point after so much hard work.

Flynn said that the dismissal – the third of Labadie’s County career – would not affect his role as club captain but was livid with the 30-year-old.

“I’ve said that he has let me down, he has let his teammates down and it’s not good enough. He gave the referee the chance to send him off,” said the boss.

“A lack of discipline has cost us the game, as simple as that. He kicked out – it was soft but a red card.

“But Oldham should have had a red card for the challenge on David Longe-King – it was a lot worse than the one that Josh Sheehan did [when sent off against Salford last weekend].”

South Wales Argus:

County are third in the table but haven’t won in seven League Two fixtures.

They opened the scoring at Boundary Park through Jake Scrimshaw and, after Davis Keillor-Dunn and Bobby Grant put the Latics in front, were level at the break thanks to debutant Luke Gambin’s superb solo strike.

However, Oldham won for only the third time on home soil this season when centre-back Mickey Demetriou deflected a cross into his own net after 74 minutes.

“They worked extremely hard, we started really well but gave Oldham three goals, and have given them six points this season,” said Flynn, whose side lost 4-2 to the Latics at Rodney Parade.

“It’s not good enough. The players worked extremely hard but it was another mistake from us that has given them a win. I couldn’t see Oldham scoring and then we go and do that.”

“It’s no wins in eight if you include the FA Cup and the three that we have lost are the three that we should have won.

“It’s frustrating but I will be doing all I can to get some players in now ready for Tuesday’s game against Carlisle to give us the boost that we need.

“The players need to raise their game – I will be doing all I can to get new players in and some of the current side will be sat next to me.

“I will hopefully get them over the line on Sunday or Monday; I want to improve the quality of the side because we saw what Luke has done today.

“He was exceptional while he was on but he hasn’t played a lot recently and that was why we had to take him off.

“Luke scored a very good goal and got an assist. He is only going to get better the fitter that he gets.

“The front three ideally I wouldn’t have wanted to take off because they were still causing problems. Ryan was a handful and was allowing us to get up the field, even with 10.

“But it’s hard when you have 10 men, with the amount of running that they did you have to be careful not to get any injuries. We had to change them.”

County entertain fourth-placed Carlisle, who are a point back with two games in hand, on Tuesday evening.

They will be withouth Labadie and Sheehan, who serves the last game of his three-match suspension.