NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn was left frustrated as his side failed to beat 10-man Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road.

County were 1-0 up through Frank Nouble’s 13th-minute opener when home defender Perry Ng was sent off for a second bookable offence four minutes later.

But, rather than take control of the match, the Exiles were pegged back in the 18th-minute as Chris Dagnall converted George Cooper’s cross.

Ben White went close to restoring County’s lead but Crewe’s Chris Porter hit the post in first-half stoppage-time.

Substitute Lamar Reynolds went closest to forcing a winner for Flynn’s men after the break but they had to settle for a point.

“It was very frustrating,” said Flynn. “I think we created enough chances to win two or three football matches but we were also not very switched on defensively on the counter-attack against us.

“Fair play to Crewe, they had 10 men and they rolled up their sleeves and caused us some problems.

“But if you don’t take the chances you create over and over then you’re always going to struggle to put teams to bed.”

He added: “I think we switched off on certain things, for example, when we got a corner we didn't lock them in on the edge of the box and they break on us, or we leave two v two at the back. It's crazy because we don't work on that.

“It was very frustrating and the amount of shots we had was too many without scoring another goal.

“The set-pieces were probably a little bit off the quality that they have been.

“But I possibly got my substitutions wrong today so I’ll take a little bit of the blame as well.”

The Exiles boss concluded: “We’re unbeaten from three away games so it’s not all doom and gloom. But it’s one today that I thought we should have won, especially with the circumstances.”