NEWPORT County midfielder Lee Minshull admits the players are frustrated by their inconsistency and inability to win at Rodney Parade.

The Exiles remain in the League Two play-off spots despite now going five home games without a victory after Tuesday’s 1-0 reverse to Mansfield Town.

Unlikely victories at promotion chasing Wycombe and Burton have kept the Exiles competitive, but Minshull insists the Exiles are fully aware that they need a big improvement at home, with back-to-back clash with Cheltenham and Luton on the horizon after Saturday’s trip to Stevenage.

“It feels a lot like after the Wycombe game when we lost to Morecambe, albeit in different circumstances this time,” he said.

“I think the game was there for us to win on Tuesday and if we weren’t able to take that victory, the least we needed to do was see it out and get the point and it is desperately disappointing we’ve not been able to do that and at least get a draw.

“It’s tough to take losing the game, we were pushing for the win and Chappers (Adam Chapman) had two chances and you thought if anyone is going to win it, it was going to be us.

“Perhaps we didn’t create as much as we should have but I think we had the better chances and need to stay switched on. If we had held on for a point we’d go to Stevenage two unbeaten and with a run going, so it’s two steps forward, one step back at the minute.”

Minshull knows County’s issues are coming in front of their own fans.

“Our home form has been good throughout my time at the club, but obviously at the moment it isn’t,” he said.

“A lot of teams are coming and setting up the same way, we didn’t concede an early goal and felt we’d give ourselves a platform in the first half to push on and get the three points.

“We possibly find it easier away from home at the moment, but to be fair the crowd were good to us on Tuesday and we just didn’t have the quality in the final third.

“Everything is more important and magnified at the part of the season and if you switch off you get punished.

“We want to put in some better home performances for the fans, but nothing has changed in respect of how many wins we need. And it doesn’t matter if we pick up the points home or away, as long as we pick up the points.”

Attention now turns to the weekend.

“Now we need to target three points at Stevenage. We’ve shown we are capable of getting on good runs and this inconsistent form of winning, losing, winning, losing, it’s not really like us,” Minshull explained.

“We’ve got to sort it out and sometimes a point can be important, grinding out a result and we needed to do that on Tuesday.”