Former Cardiff City defender Jason Perry says Newport County must go “back to basics” after losing 4-0 away at Swindon Town.
The Exiles found themselves 3-0 down within 21 minutes, with Swansea City loanee Joel Cotterill adding a fourth Robins goal on the stroke of half-time after early efforts from Kabongo Tshimanga and Paul Glatzel along with a Matt Baker own goal.
“Newport have got to go back to basics, you can’t concede the number of goals that Newport have, they’ve got to stop losing games in this manner,” Perry told BBC Radio Wales Sport.
“I think Newport are in for a tough time, I look at teams when they find themselves in this position and try and see a reaction, there was very little from the Newport players today.
“That might be down to rotation and inexperience in the squad, but there’s still so much to work on for Newport County.
“So much has gone wrong in the past two games, it can be hard to know what to prioritise. For me Newport have to stop conceding goals, they’ve got to tighten up all over the pitch.”
Perry has also criticised Newport’s inability to defend set-pieces.
Swindon’s Tshimanga opened the scoring after County failed to clear a free-kick, before Glatzel reacted first to Will Wright’s header back across goal for Swindon’s third, once again from a free-kick.
“Newport showed time and time again that they can’t defend set-pieces, they lost every header,” added Perry.
“You’ve got to learn to defend as a team, there were centre-forwards turning in the box, Swindon winning every header and every second ball, it simply isn’t good enough.
“It was an easy afternoon’s work for Swindon Town.”