CAPTAIN Joss Labadie admitted that Newport County AFC “capitulated” to defeat against Barnet and warned that the players need to “step up” to avoid sliding further down the League Two table.

Labadie returned from injury as a second-half substitute on Tuesday night but couldn’t prevent County throwing away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 after conceding two late goals at Rodney Parade.

The Exiles have now dropped to 10th in the table, four points below the play-off places, but the skipper is confident they can stop the rot.

“The boys ain’t happy,” said Labadie. “It wasn’t good enough right from the first minute.

“We managed to get a goal and go 1-0 up but we didn’t manage the game well towards the end and we didn’t deserve to take anything from the game.

“We capitulated. We didn’t shut the game out as we should have and unfortunately we’ve come away with nothing.

“The manager’s not said anything that we didn’t already know,” added the skipper. “We know that we’ve only got ourselves to blame and it’s something that we’ll have to address at the weekend.”

County travel to fifth-placed Swindon Town on Saturday looking to end a run of six league games without a win, which has seen them draw three and lose three.

“We’ve all got to step up now and make sure that we don’t let a good start become a mediocre one,” said Labadie.

“We need to stick in and around it [the play-off places] come Christmas so that we give ourselves a chance to kick on and push for promotion.

“It’s not been going well for us as a team but I’m really confident in the team that we’ve got, the staff we’ve got behind us and obviously the fans as well that we can put things right in the coming weeks.

“We know that this is just a minor blip and we’ll bounce back stronger.”

South Wales Argus:

Labadie is pleased to be back after five weeks on the sidelines and he says the Exiles will be going for the win at the County Ground.

“It’s been a frustrating time for me personally and it was nice to get back on the pitch but it’s a shame that it ended in disappointment,” he said.

Asked about the Swindon match, he added: “It doesn’t matter who it is, we’ll apply ourselves right.

“We’ll train hard on Thursday and Friday and take the game to them on Saturday and hopefully pick up three points.”