Plymouth Argyle 6, Newport County 1
Newport County are intent on sending former Cardiff City manager Dave Jones crashing out of the Football League.
Manager Mike Flynn and his County team crashed 6-1 at Plymouth Argyle, who clinched promotion, while relegation rivals Cheltenham Town and Yeovil Town both won.
Hartlepool United, where Jones is in charge, lost 2-1 at bottom club Leyton Orient.
Newport are only one point behind Hartlepool with three fixtures to play and Flynn says: “I’m still extremely confident we will stay up. The boys have been unbelievable for me and this result is a blip.
“It’s a fight between us and Hartlepool. It’s that simple. We need to better Hartlepool’s results and hopefully that will be enough.
“We could have played well today, drawn and Hartlepool won and we would be worse off. So I have to be philosophical.”
Newport’s convincing defeat at Home Park was their heaviest defeat of the 21st century, while Plymouth ended a run of three successive County wins.
Flynn says: “My job is to pick the players’ heads up and that starts immediately.
“This is not the time to play the blame game. There are three games left and we have to forget this and move on.
“This is the game I was always most worried about, but my message to the fans is ‘keep believing.’
“We had kept three sheets in a row, so I didn’t see this coming in the manner that it did.”
Winger Matty Kennedy, who is playing at Plymouth on loan from Cardiff City, and Jake Jervis scored two goals each with Graham Carey and Ryan Taylor also on target.
County were 6-0 down before Aaron Williams netted Newport’s consolation.
Plymouth Argyle: McCormick, Threlkeld (Miller 78), Songo’o, Sokolik, Sawyer, Fox (Smith 76), Sarcevic, Jervis, Carey (Tanner 84), Kennedy, Taylor. Subs not used: Bulvitis, Donaldson, Dorel, Garita.
Newport County: Day, Jones, Bennett (Nelson 75), Demetriou, Pipe (Barnum-Bobb 45), Randall (Williams 62), Rose, Owen-Evans, Butler, Samuel, Rigg. Subs not used: Myrie-Williams, Bittner, Bird, Gordon.
Referee: Graham Horwood
Attendance: 13,971.
League Two table – bottom three only, two will be relegated
All teams play 46 matches
Pl GD Pts
22 Hartlepool United 43 -19 43
23 Newport County 43 -23 42
24 Leyton Orient 43 -33 36
Remaining fixtures:
Newport: v Plymouth (away), Accrington (home), Carlisle (away), Notts County (home).
Hartlepool: Orient (away), Barnet (home), Cheltenham (away), Doncaster (home).
