NEWPORT County AFC manager Michael Flynn is still frustrated by last week’s 1-1 home draw with struggling Morecambe but he is well aware that his side have to fight for every victory in a tighter-than-usual League Two season.

County failed to build on Padraig Amond’s first-minute opener at Rodney Parade last Saturday and were punished as old nemesis Kevin Ellison earned the Shrimps a point after capitalising on a Tyler Forbes error 13 minutes from time.

It’s a match Flynn feels his side should have won but he knows that the Exiles have no “divine right” to prevail in any contest.

“The players have been fine, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Flynn when asked how the squad had reacted to Saturday’s setback.

“We can’t change the result. We know we should have won, but we didn’t. That’s the only thing that matters really. We’ve got to try to win this Saturday.

“But, let’s not forget that we’re only Newport County; we’ve got no divine right whatsoever to just turn up and win a football match.

“Teams like Morecambe are fighting for their lives and they play some good stuff as well. There was a spell when they were the better team in the first half.

“If we make errors or we get injuries they all factor into why we don’t win games.

“And sometimes we get beaten by the better team and there’s nothing we can do about it. That’s part and parcel of football.”

On Ellison, who has now scored six goals against County in the last five years, Flynn said: “It was in the stars that he was going to score his first goal of the season against Newport and he didn’t even have to do much for it. That’s the frustrating thing.”

Flynn’s men weren’t the only ones at the top end of the table to fail to win at the weekend.

Leaders Lincoln City were beaten at Colchester United, second-placed MK Dons were held at Mansfield Town and third-placed Exeter City lost at home to Forest Green Rovers.

County remain fourth in the table – four points off the top and four points above eighth-placed Stevenage.

“It’s a funny league,” said Flynn. “It’s a tougher league [this season] because I think there’s more teams closer to each other so that makes our start even better.

“I’m delighted with the start we’ve made and hopefully when we get everyone back we’ll be a match for anybody.

“It’s going to be tight all the way and that’s why I keep saying that nothing is won in this part of the season.

“You’re going to have blips and good runs and let’s just hope our runs are better than the rest of them and our blips are less than the rest of them because then we’ll have a good chance.

“We could have had an extra four points [and be level with Lincoln] – I feel we’ve deserved that,” he added.

“But there’s going to be games that we win when we don’t deserve to and there’ll be games that we don’t win when we deserve to.

“It’ll even itself out over the course of the season and hopefully we’ll have a little bit of luck in our favour.”