Late Newport lapses have to stop, says Hughes

Manager David Hughes is hunting a solution to Newport County's injury-time issues.

The Exiles suffered a last-gasp defeat at Grimsby Town in League Two on Saturday when Kieran Green made it 2-1 in the 94th minute.

Newport conceded twice past the 90-minute mark at Barnet in the Carabao Cup preliminary round before progressing on penalties, while they shipped a goal at the death when winning 2-1 at Crawley.

The Green goal at Blundell Park was costly and condemned Hughes to a first league loss.

"Ultimately, we probably gifted them the winner in the end," said the manager.

"Credit to them, they asked lots of questions, we are just bitterly disappointed that we got to injury time and that's the third time now [we have conceded].

"That's something we've got to look and think about. Do I need to do anything differently to try and help the guys get through those moments?"

Grimsby scored in the first minute when Green's header deflected in off Courtney Baker-Richardson but Newport levelled through Matt Baker in the 55th minute.

The Mariners eventually got their reward for a performance that forced Nik Tzanev into a string of superb stops, including one from Jaze Kabia's penalty.

"The positive is that he made some really good saves, the disappointing part is that he's had to make them," said Hughes.

"I'm not too downhearted and we said that to the players in the dressing room. There are some really small areas that we can improve on that would make the last two minutes avoidable.

"Let's give Grimsby some credit and look at us and say that for large spells there were real positives.

"With a little bit more of a ruthless edge at key times it could have looked different, particularly second half, but coming away with nothing was really disappointing."

Newport aim to bounce back when they welcome Salford City, who are fresh from a 2-1 win against Accrington, to Rodney Parade on Tuesday (19:45 BST).