THE F-word was flying round Rodney Parade on Saturday – Newport County AFC fans are used to frustration being their overwhelming emotion after home games.

This defeat means their side has still not won at home since March and have remarkably recorded just five victories at Rodney Parade since Justin Edinburgh left the club in February 2015.

A familiar feeling then, but what made this defeat worse was that it all started so well for the hosts.

For once they scored the first goal when Rhys Healey nodded in from close range on 10 minutes on his full debut and it could have had more before the break with Cambridge United goalkeeper Will Norris twice denying Jon Parkin with superb saves.

At the break County looked well placed to secure a morale-boosting three points to ease the pressure on manager Warren Feeney and Cambridge boss Shaun Derry was heading for the sack.

By the final whistle, after second half strikes from Uche Ikpeazu and Luke Berry, it was Feeney facing calls for his head from the stands amid plenty of boos.

The no-nonsense Northern Irishman is not a fan of social media and it’s just as well with a growing number of Exiles supporters demanding his immediate dismissal or resignation on various platforms, including many on the Argus website.

It wouldn’t make for pretty reading for Feeney but he knows he’s under pressure and admitted afterwards that the supporters had every right to make their feelings towards him clear.

They certainly did that on Saturday and, while the uproar after last week’s defeat at promotion hopefuls Doncaster Rovers seemed misplaced, it’s hard to argue with the reaction to this latest loss.

Losing at home to the bottom club, who hadn’t won a match before the weekend and are now below County on goal difference alone, is a real cause for concern.

There is that game in hand but the manner of the second half capitulation here will surely worry the club hierarchy, who showed Terry Butcher the door in a similar situation 12 months ago.

The fact that it’s now just one win in 21 games for Feeney stretching back to March also doesn’t help matters.

During the second half on Saturday there seemed to be a nervousness about the team on the pitch and from the manager in the dugout.

And, as so often this season, the defending let the side down once again.

Former Exiles winger Medy Elito was booed all afternoon by some home fans but he had the last laugh, creating both goals for his new side with free-kicks from the right flank.

Elito never won over the Exiles fans last season, notching up more red cards than goals and frustrating everyone with his inconsistent performances.

And he was the cause of more frustration on his return to Rodney Parade.

He made the first on 61 minutes with a perfect set-piece and substitute Ikpeazu got away from Scot Bennett before stooping to head in from close range.

Feeney was almost sent to the stands in the closing stages for booting a discarded water bottle some 40m onto the pitch in frustration.

And he was even more irate seven minutes from time when his defence tried and failed to clear another Elito free-kick and Berry showed more determination than anyone to win the scrap in the box and hook in the winner.

There was a lot of debate before the match about whether it was a ‘must-win’ encounter. Feeney argued that it wasn’t, many fans disagreed.

If it wasn’t a ‘must-win’ it was almost certainly a ‘must-not-lose’ and the fact that Feeney’s men ended up empty-handed against a side just as low on confidence as them has heaped even more pressure on the manager’s shoulders.

Anything less than a point at newly-promoted Grimsby Town tomorrow will mean those calls for his head will only get louder and louder.

County: Day; Bignot, Bennett, Cameron, Butler; Grego-Cox, Tozer, Randall (Sheehan, 80), Rigg; Parkin (Jackson, 70), Healey

Subs not used: Bittner, Jones, Compton, Myrie-Williams, Green

Booked: Tozer, Grego-Cox

Referee: Nicholas Kinseley

Attendance: 2,205