Newport County 1-3 Accrington Stanley: Exiles' slump continues with home defeat

Newport were only two points outside the League Two play-off places after victory at AFC Wimbledon on 16 March

Newport County's late-season slump continued as they were beaten 3-1 by Accrington Stanley at Rodney Parade.

Newport began in style as Harry Charsley laid off for Bryn Morris to fire in his eighth goal of the season.

But Alex Henderson's header quickly drew Accrington level and Tommy Leigh's close-range strike put the visitors ahead seconds into the second half.

Joe Pritchard tapped in to seal victory for John Doolan's team, with Newport's Adam Lewis sent off in added time.

This was a first win in five League Two games for Stanley, who climb to 17th in the table, one point and one place below Newport.

The Exiles are enduring their worst run of 2023-24 having lost five successive matches, with Lewis' dismissal compounding their misery.

Newport manager Graham Coughlan:

"It's not good enough, we know that. But when you take a group of boys and you take them on as far as they can go, this is probably what happens.

"Some of the things we are doing are car-crash material. We have got three games, we are going to limp over the finish line which is killing me to be quite honest with you, [after] all the hard work we have put in.

"Their work-rate is not in question. They are trying to dig deep, they just physically can't. When it's been a long, hard season you get mentally tired, and when you are mentally tired you make silly, daft, stupid errors.

"At the end of the say we just don't have the depth to compete at the deep end of the season, and that's frustrating. We have just fallen off a cliff - it's unrecognisable.

"We don't know what Adam Lewis was sent off for. He doesn't know why. He's a little perplexed."