"That was painful to watch": Coughlan on Newport's defeat to MK Dons

Newport County boss Graham Coughlan was heavily critical of his side's performance in their 3-0 drubbing at the hands of MK Dons on Saturday.

The former Sheffield Wednesday defender had guided his side to becoming League Two's in-form side until their arrival at Stadium MK, winning five of their last six matches to move within striking distance of the play-off spots.

But the Exiles barely caused a ripple at MK1, 3-0 inside the opening half-an-hour, with their travelling 512 supporters ironically cheering their first shot on goal with five minutes to go.

Coughlan was hugely disappointed with his side when he spoke afterwards, admitting his players could ill-afford a repeat performance at any point for the remainder of the season.

"It was very painful watching the game, I don't know how the fans took it," he said. "There was no consolation that we've been good but were bad today. We want regular performances, and the minimum we ask for is to out-work, out-fight and out-run the opposition. We cannot let the opposition out-do us like that.

"The better team won. I don't think I'll even watch it back. It was painful. We didn't compete. They were better with the ball, we were sloppy, we just didn't come out of the traps. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb."

Coughlan continued: "Some of the performances were just not good enough. If you want to represent this club, yourself, or me, you have to be better. They may have a little bit of credit with me, the club or the fans, but we cannot afford too much more of that. That was really poor today.

"When we got the ball, we gave it back. We were wasteful with it. If you give good teams the ball, they'll hurt you. We kept going back too often, we gained no territory, we gained no decent possession, we didn't work their goalie. Overall, it was a really bad day at the office."