NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn has defended his players against claims that they are “on the beach” and insisted that he and they are determined to end the season on a high.

The Exiles players faced criticism from some fans for a perceived lack of effort during last week’s 2-1 home defeat to Crewe Alexandra.

The defeat left County 10 points below the play-off places and they have not won at Rodney Parade since January 19.

But Flynn is adamant that his players worked as hard as ever against the Railwaymen and will continue to do so over the final eight games, starting with this afternoon’s home clash with Coventry City.

“For me it will be very disappointing [if the season fizzles out],” said the manager.

“I don’t think the fans deserve that and the players are definitely not dropping any effort levels.

“If anything, they’re working harder. The GPS data we’ve collected shows that.

“It’s nothing to do with them having their feet up and being on the beach already because I wouldn’t let that happen.

“It’s just one of those things. We lost last week to a team fighting to stay in the Football League.

“It’s frustrating because we had the chance to close the gap on the play-offs and don’t think for a minute that I wasn’t frustrated and the players weren’t frustrated.

“But we’re Newport County and we haven’t got a divine right to win any football match.

“Did I think it was a vintage performance? No. But don’t tell me the effort wasn’t there because I know these players better than anybody.”

South Wales Argus:

Reflecting on the campaign as a whole, Flynn believes it has been a success.

“It’s been a good season in respect to where we were last season,” he said. “We’ve had the FA Cup run, we’ve got money in the bank and we’ve improved on and off the pitch.

“There’s probably 12 managers who would swap positions with me this season and this time last season there wouldn’t have been one so that tells you the improvement we’ve had.

“It’s been good stepping stones. Would I like to finish higher? Of course I would.

“Do I want to finish on a high? Most definitely, and these players know that because I’ve made it quite clear more than once.

“It’s a mini-season now and we’ve got to finish as well as we can,” he added.

“We want to finish the season on a high and give the fans something to be happy about and then we want to carry that momentum onto next season.

“The ball is in the players’ court. They’ve been fantastic all season and they know that if they finish on a high then it’s going to be a really positive season.

“If they don’t then it’s going to be a really frustrating season because of what we could have done.

“I’m not interested in ‘what-ifs?’ I want to make sure that we give ourselves the best finish that we can.”

County host sixth-placed Coventry today before traveling to relegation-threatened Chesterfield on Monday.

“Easter weekend is crucial for nearly every club around the country,” said Flynn.

“Everything can change because it’s two games over a small period of time.

It’s a busy period and we’ll have a good idea by Monday evening what the season is going to pan out like.

“Everybody’s trained well and we want to put last weekend’s disappointment behind us. We need to improve on last weekend and that’s all of us.

“We’re all in this together – myself, Wayne [Hatswell], Lennie [Lawrence], everybody – we all need to keep improving and I learned a lot from last weekend.”