Newport must focus on the league after FA Vase knockout

Town sit a disappointing 15th in the table, having finished third last time out. Sunday's 3-2 defeat to Canterbury in the fourth round of the Vase sees them out of all competitions now, and Lynch has demanded his side refocus and restore some pride in their league campaign.

Speaking to sportsshorts.org.uk, Lynch said: "We need to regroup and get up that league. At the end of the day, the Vase was a good distraction but the league is our bread and butter. It has been a disappointing league campaign so far. We're in a position we need to get out of.

"At the moment, everyone is feeling a bit low so it's important we get ourselves up. We've just got to win as many games as possible and see where it takes us."

Canterbury raced into a 2-0 first half lead when Kyron Lightfoot and Bola Dawodu hit home for City in a poor opening half for the Swans. Michael Lyon pulled one back with 21 minutes remaining though, but an Adam Woollcott free kick seven minutes from time effectively wrapped things up for City. Jake Stronge made it 3-2 with three minutes to go, but Tom Liversedge was millimetres away from equalising at the death.

Newport's poor first half was one of the biggest causes of concern for manager Lynch, who added: "We're really disappointed because it's a game I felt we could have won. We never got going in the first half, and it took us to go 2-0 down before we even got ourselves in the game.

"We needed to be on the ball, be braver and pass the ball instead of lumping it up to Sedge against two big centre halves. We were too predictable in the first half. When he got it down and started playing, we came back into it.

"Right at the end, Jake is a hair away from making it 3-3, it's one of those days when it's if and buts."