CRAWLEY Town manager Harry Kewell has again claimed that a “strong, physical and direct” approach earned Newport County AFC victory over his side on Friday night.

Kewell was highly critical of County’s supposed reliance on set-pieces and long balls after the Exiles won 2-1 at Crawley in September.

And he made similar comments after Michael Flynn’s men completed the double over his side with another 2-1 win at Rodney Parade this weekend.

“I felt like we deserved something out of the game,” said the Australian.

“Newport are a very strong physical team. They play a very direct kind of game.

“They kind of wait to get positions in certain areas and get their big boys up there and they capitalised on that.”

Kewell brought on 6ft midfielder Aryan Tajbakhsh and 6ft 2ins striker Thomas Verheydt at half-time and 6ft forward Panutche Camará late on and their goal came from a high ball into the box.

Joe Day dropped the ball under pressure from Verheydt and Crawley captain Jimmy Smith scored after a scramble.

Mark Connolly also had the ball in the net as he headed in a free-kick that was pumped forward into the box but the goal was ruled out for offside.

“I thought we were poor at the start, we didn’t really look at it,” added Kewell.

“But in the second half we made a couple of changes and I thought Aryan done excellent.

“We got straight back into the game early on and we just needed that little bit more quality, I felt, and it just wasn’t there.”

Reds skipper Smith said: “It’s disappointing – we never really got going in the first half and losing the second goal just before half-time left us with a lot to do.

“I got us a goal back and I thought the two lads who came on – Thomas and Aryan – gave us a bit of momentum in the second half.

“We pushed and pushed but the equaliser didn’t come so we have to assess where we can improve.”

Asked about County’s style of play, Smith added: “You have to get used to different styles in this league. Newport are very effective at what they do so fair play to them.”