NEWPORT County AFC defender Fraser Franks admits Saturday’s 6-0 home defeat at the hands of Yeovil Town was “unacceptable” but he’s adamant that sticking together is the key to recovering from a day to forget.

Yeovil ran riot at Rodney Parade to register the biggest away win in League Two since 2011 with mistakes from the Exiles defence and goalkeeper Joe Day proving costly before Robbie Willmott was sent off late on to cap a miserable afternoon.

Franks made no excuses after the match but he’s certain that the whole squad will regroup and bounce back for the trip to Tranmere Rovers next weekend.

“It’s a tough one to take,” said the 27-year-old centre-back. “It’s unacceptable, especially in front of our home fans who have been brilliant with us every game this season.

“It was just a catalogue of errors for the goals and they punished us.

“But this is where proper teams stick together. We’re still third in the table and we’ve got to stick together through thick and thin.

“We’ve got a lot of young boys in the squad and it’s up to people like me, Crofty [Andrew Crofts], Mickey [Demetriou] – the experienced players – to pick them up.

“You’re going to have days like that in football but it’s unacceptable and we know what we need to do to put it right for the fans and for ourselves and we’ll do that.

“I don’t doubt for one second that we’ll bounce back,” he added. “We’ve got such a strong unit and a strong group and we’ll bounce back.

“We’ll learn from this. We’ll take it for what it is – we’ve been spanked – but we’ll use it as a learning curve and hopefully use it as a positive to kick us on.”

County had won their last six home matches in League Two and were on a run of four successive league wins, beginning the match against Yeovil level on points with leaders Lincoln City.

The defeat leaves Michael Flynn’s men in third place in the table and three points off the top after eight games.

“We had made Rodney Parade a fortress and for me it was an off day,” added Franks.

“It won’t happen again and I’ll be one of the ones making sure it doesn’t.

“At 1-0 there wasn't much in it and we missed three or four chances but they scored goals at important times and then we were chasing the game.

"There were a few mistakes and the score line looks bad but we’ll regroup and 100 per cent we’ll bounce back."

The former Stevenage man continued: “I’ve played in a lot of games and I’ve been on the end of a few beatings. You just need to work hard in training and do the basics right.

“We’ve got a tough game at Tranmere now and all we can do is try to rectify it.

“But the main thing is to stick together and make sure you learn from the experience.

“We’ve just got to look forward and make sure we get back to winning ways.”