AS FAR as festive viewing goes, Saturday's trip to Morecambe started out as It’s a Wonderful Life and ended up as The Nightmare Before Christmas for Newport County AFC fans.

It wasn’t much easier on the ears either as the Globe Arena DJ cranked up the sound system immediately after the final whistle.

Nothing sucks the joy out of Bring Me Sunshine like an insipid second-half collapse from your team against the side propping up the entire Football League.

And the opening bars of Shakin Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone were like daggers to the hearts of the 91 County supporters who had made the 230-mile trek to the north Lancashire coast on Saturday.

Things were very different for the Exiles fans at half-time as they savoured a very encouraging first 45 minutes from their side, capped by a top-quality goal from the returning Joss Labadie.

The skipper was teed up by Taylor Maloney on the edge of the area and curled his shot in off the underside of the bar to give his side a deserved lead in the 14th minute.

Driven on by Labadie, Maloney, Josh Sheehan and Padraig Amond, Michael Flynn’s men were full of positivity before the break and the only negative was their failure to make more of their dominance.

But the second half was nothing short of an abject surrender from the visitors, who simply had no answer to a team transformed by the half-time introduction of forwards Kevin Ellison and Cole Stockton.

This time it wasn’t Ellison who did the damage, but he certainly had an effect as he revitalised the likes of A-Jay Leitch-Smith and Carlos Mendes-Gomes.

Stockton levelled midway through the second half and the inevitable winner arrived in fine style 10 minutes from the end as John O’Sullivan finished off a superb move, unhindered by any hint of a challenge from the visitors.

South Wales Argus:

“We didn’t play very well in the first half,” admitted new Shrimps boss Derek Adams, who saw his side climb off the bottom.

“We didn’t do the things we’re good at in the first half.

“Second half, we made a couple of changes and scored two very good goals.

“I didn’t want to make it (changes) in the first half; I was close to doing that.

“By doing that, it might have allowed Newport to change; they didn’t know what we were going to do in the second half.

“The changes worked and we scored one of the best goals I’ve seen in my managerial career or playing career; the way we passed it, we moved, we had a third man running twice and it was a fabulous finish.

“We knew we had to change the style of play; in the first half it was too tippy-tappy, second half we became more direct, we went on the second balls, won them and played forward.

“And the way we moved the ball, the way we ran forward, the way we wanted to win the game second half was extremely satisfying.”

Flynn admitted his side simply couldn’t cope with the hosts after the break.

“They didn’t really change much,” he said. “They kept the same formation. They brought on Kev, who’s 40, and Cole Stockton, who he (Adams) obviously doesn’t fancy – otherwise he would have been starting.

“Cole bullied everyone he came up against and Kev made it difficult for those around him.

“We could see them getting on top, so we put Benno (Scot Bennett) on to sit and then they scored.

“And I thought their second goal, although it was poor from us, was very well taken.

“I don’t want to take too much away from Morecambe by saying how bad we were.”

County: Townsend, McNamara, O’Brien (Inniss, 71), Demetriou, Haynes, Maloney (Bennett, 67), Sheehan, Labadie, Nurse (Abrahams, 71), Amond, Matt

Subs not used: King, Dolan, Collins, Poleon

Booked: McNamara

Referee: Paul Marsden

Attendance: 2,161 (91 County)x