Newport manager Graham Coughlan admitted a 2-1 home defeat for his injury-hit side against Harrogate left him feeling at his lowest ebb during his 12 months in the job.
Harrogate led 2-0 thanks to goals either side of half-time from George Thomson and Anthony O’Connor.
The home side pulled a goal back through Will Evans – his 10th of the season – just before the hour mark, but they could not find an equaliser.
A sixth defeat of the season sees Coughlan’s men slip to 19th in the League Two table and he was not happy with what he saw from his players.
“Too many players didn’t turn up and the goals hurt us – one or two players need a reality check and to have a look at themselves,” said the Exiles boss.
“This is probably the lowest that I have been since I walked through the front door, there is still life in me, and I have enough experience and fight to carry this on and keep fighting but today is a low point. It’s the lowest that I have felt in 12 months.”
Aaron Wildig almost rescued a point for the Welsh side with four minutes remaining, but his header came back off a post.
“Did we deserve a point? We probably did but you have to do more, we didn’t turn up in the first half,” added Coughlan.
“You can’t perform like that and expect to take anything out of the game. Had Wildig’s header gone in and not hit the post then we would have got out of jail.
“We are shooting ourselves in the foot, we are showing our naivety and inexperience. It’s hard to stomach.”
It was a different story for Harrogate manager Simon Weaver, who saw his side record a third win in four games to climb to 15th in the table.
“We’re delighted with today’s showing; I thought we showed a bit of everything, and we had to to get the three points,” said Weaver.
“There was a lot of gritty defending in the last 10 minutes, but before that I thought we were in a dominant position at 2-0 because of a dominant display.
“There was fluent passing, good forward movement and we caused them problems.”
Thomson put Harrogate ahead after 42 minutes with a 25-yard strike and O’Connor headed in from a corner seven minutes after the break before Evans’s close-range finish at the other end.
“The goal we conceded obviously offered them an opportunity to get back into the game and we had to show our resilience at the end,” added Weaver.
“I thought our centre-halves dealt with Omar Bogle probably the best we’ve ever dealt with him, because he always seems to score against us!”
Man United could be without Toone until new year, says Skinner
Marc Skinner revealed that Manchester United could be without midfielder Ella Toone until the new year after she picked up a calf injury in training.
Toone has featured in five games in the Women's Super League this season, but is yet to register a goal or an assist so far this term.
The 25-year-old has missed United's last two games and was not selected in Sarina Wiegman's England squad for their upcoming friendlies against the United States and Switzerland.
She had previously appeared in a staggering 96 straight matches before missing United's WSL showdown with Leicester City last weekend.
But ahead of the Red Devils' meeting with league leaders Chelsea on Sunday, Skinner confirmed they would be without Toone for not only that game, but for the foreseeable future.
"We have three games [after the international break and before Christmas]. There's always the hope, but I think you balance and you go, 'right, if we can get her back, we get her back'," Skinner said.
"But we're just not going to rush her in this moment because it's a calf injury, it's your running mechanism. If we injure the running mechanism, it takes longer.
"So ideally we'd like her back for those games afterwards.
"The projection is she misses this game [Chelsea], she misses the international window, probably misses the first game after that, and then we'll see from there.
"But because it is such a short block of only three games, we'll assess whether it's worth that or actually resetting to come back after Christmas."
Al-Nassr 1-2 Al-Qadsiah: Aubameyang winner ends hosts' unbeaten run
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hit the winner as Al-Qadsiah inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League on Friday to end their 21-match unbeaten run.
Cristiano Ronaldo's seventh league goal of the season put Al-Nassr ahead, but Al-Qadsiah replied swiftly through Julian Quinones before Aubameyang struck the decisive blow.
The hosts drew first blood in the 32nd minute when Ronaldo slotted home after Al-Qadsiah goalkeeper Koen Casteels had spilled a routine catch from Talisca's cross.
However, Al-Nassr's joy was short-lived when Quinones brought down Turki Al Ammar's delivery five minutes later, with the Mexcio winger firing past Bento to level the scores.
Quinones also played a part in the winning goal after brilliantly turning the ball back across goal from Nahitan Nandez's search pass to tee up a simple finish for Aubameyang.
The result sees Al-Qadsiah move level on 22 points with third-placed Al-Nassr, with Al-Shabab also level with them.
Stefano Pioli's Al-Nassr are six points adrift of defending champions and leaders Al-Hilal, who also have a game in hand.
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