Town boss Paul Cook felt his side played really well in their 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Newport with only their finishing letting them down.

The Blues had 25 shots, six on target but it was Timmy Abraham’s fourth minute goal which won the tie.

“I thought we played really well, if I’m being truthful, you just can’t miss that many chances in a football game, can you?” he said.

“I thought it was a real smash and grab from Newport, great credit to them. I think both sides had made changes.

“I felt we created a helluva lot of chances, a lot of chances. We’ve hit the woodwork a couple of times and sometimes if you don’t put your chances away, we all know what happens.”

Asked whether it was just the final finish which was lacking, he added: “That’s what’s football about. Possession doesn’t win you games, goals do and unfortunately tonight, we didn’t score the goals.

“I enjoyed us, I really did. I thought lads came into the team, Bailey Clements, Cam Humphreys, Idris, Dobs, Corrie Ndaba and we played really well.

“I thought the team shape looked very strong. I thought we had so much possession, we had so many crosses in the box and we had so many chances.

“But unfortunately, as everyone knows, if you don’t put your chances away, you don’t win games.

“I thought Louie Barry looked very exciting for his first start, again all through the team I thought we played well, but obviously everyone wants to win football games and we all understand that.”

Was composure an issue? “You all watched it, you’ll never get me criticising the players. I don’t really work like that. I think we’re a work in progress. We made 10 changes from Saturday with lads who in some cases have never even met each other.

“So if you expect us to win, I think that can always be a bit tricky. You’ve got to pay respect to the opposition, to Newport, they’re a very strong League Two team, beaten in the play-offs last year. They’ve a really good manager, who has had a stable team for a few years.

“And at times we penned them in and we carved them up, if truth be known. We just couldn’t score.”

Cook made 10 changes from the team which drew 2-2 with Morecambe at the weekend and the Blues boss admits he’s not decided on his best team.

“With players still coming in the building, Hayden Coulson and Kyle Edwards have come in, everybody knows there’s been a lot of change at the club. When there’s a lot of change it does take time unfortunately, whether people like to hear that or not,” he said.

“Integrating to the new players into the club, into the area, settling is important and obviously getting them training and playing is very important as well.”

Quizzed on how the performance differed from Saturday, he added: “I thought we played well tonight, I really did. I was really pleased with the performance. Nowadays football gets scrutinised that quickly, it’s untrue.

“I thought we played really well, someone said we had nearly 30 attempts on goal. If you have 30 attempts on goal and you don’t score, I think we have to look at our shooting boots, don’t we.”

He confirmed there will be further changes for the visit to Burton on Saturday: “I would suggest so if I made 10 for the last one. I’ll keep changing 10 every time and see where it gets me.”

Cook was asked about the performance of 17-year-old Cameron Humphreys and said he was pleased with all the youngsters who were involved.

“I thought they were all excellent, all the young lads were excellent,” he said. “We’re trying to get minutes into Sone Aluko, Scotty Fraser’s come on, [James] Norwood and Kayden [Jackson] have come on.

“We’re all playing catch-up from pre-season and as a manager you’ve got to stay very focused on your targets ahead.”

Cook said he is disappointed to go out of the competition, even if his main focus is very much the league.

“Always disappointed, you want to win games,” he said. “We’d love to play a big team under the lights at Portman Road with a big crowd, but unfortunately at the minute, the league campaign is our priority, I think everyone knows that.

“We don’t want to lose football matches, I don’t think any manager wants to lose football matches, but I couldn’t complain about the way we played tonight, I actually enjoyed watching the game.”

Norwood went off towards the end with a hamstring problem leaving the Blues with 10 men. Cook says he’s not sure of the extent of the issue.

“It’s too quick, I can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s just football, we’ll go and see now, we’ll have an assessment and we’ll see where it is.”

Toto Nsiala suffered a hamstring problem on Saturday and underwent a scan yesterday but Cook wouldn’t be drawn on the centre-half’s situation.

“Again, one of the things here, we can’t debate every player after every game. When there are injury updates, we’ll give you them,” he said.

“Tonight it’s about the lads who have played and the disappointment that we’ve gone out of the cup.”

Asked whether Nsiala’s injury means he has a concern about the centre-half position ahead of the weekend, he said: “You get injuries, don’t you? We’ll address it tomorrow, we’ll come and train tomorrow. The cycle goes on and we look towards the next game.”

Questioned on whether CEO Mark Ashton is working on any further additions, the Blues having signed 14 players already this summer, he said: “We’ll just keep going. These lads now, they’ve had interrupted pre-season, Hayden’s had Covid for 12 days, we’ve signed a centre-half in Edmundson, who is still a week or two away.

“The reality is it goes on. As manager, we just sort the game out tonight, disappointed to go out, we wish Newport well and we look forward to Saturday at Burton.”

What does he like about Kyle Edwards and Hayden Coulson, who became recruits 13 and 14 yesterday? “They’re just young, they’ve got good energy, good players, talented boys, who can handle the ball.

“We’ve seen the last two games, unfortunately tonight we couldn’t break down a Newport team, but we certainly had enough chances to.

“Teams might set up to defend like that against us and we’ve got to make sure we learn to win the game.”

Cook didn’t want to comment about the on-off transfer involving Portsmouth winger Michael Jacobs: “There’s nothing to say on Michael, I’m not looking to get involved in any controversy, we’ve had a game tonight and that’s all I want to talk about.”

Newport manager Michael Flynn was unsurprisingly delighted with his side's victory.

“It was an absolutely outstanding win,” he told his club's official website.

“I’m very, very proud of that group of players because we had a lot of young boys out there.

“They haven’t really played together as a team but I thought they dug in, road their luck at times, against a weakened Ipswich team.

“You could see the players they were bringing on so I’m over the moon because that’s a massive confidence boost for those boys.”

Photo: TWTD

Umros added 23:07 - Aug 10 4 in 18 Paul. It ain't good!
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WonTheCupin78 added 23:08 - Aug 10 Good game, plenty of chances created. Clearly, not a great result but think we will have to get used to some dodgy results this season while the new team gets used to each other.
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essextractorboy93 added 23:09 - Aug 10 Some really encouraging signs and positive performances out there tonight but we should have taken our chances. Clements, Humphreys, Dobra and Barry were the stand outs for me. Really enjoyable game to watch but of course disappointed to go out the competition. COYB!
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Horseboy added 23:10 - Aug 10 You all watched it, you'll never get me criticising the players. I don't really work like that. Really Paul, forgot the end of last season already????
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BlueNomad added 23:12 - Aug 10 Umbro's - forget last season!!!
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DerryfromBury added 23:20 - Aug 10 You can't really arguer with what Cooks say's. I can't remember a game were we had so many chances and not scored. Some very good performances especially Dobra, Clements & Barry. It's going to take time for all the players to gel. Don't think anyone's needs to panic just yet.
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smellmycheese added 23:25 - Aug 10 I was there but I'm sorry Paul we did not play really well. Far from it.
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BurleysGloryDays added 23:27 - Aug 10 Excitement factor not shattered one iota for me, all about the medium to long term, we're half way through a rebuild and will be for weeks, months. Pointless cup run avoided which i'm actually delighted about and anyone with half a brain should be too. Last thing we need is long Tuesday nights roaming around the country for a milk cup literally no one has ever cared about, ever. By all accounts, social media, EADT boys, and fans on here that were actually AT the game saying it was really exciting to watch, great style. Promising!

16

Karlosfandangal added 23:28 - Aug 10 At least we had more attempts on goal tonight than the whole of last season
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istanblue added 00:53 - Aug 11 This whole ''played well but we lost'' line is starting to wear thin, Paul. Just ask your predecessor.
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jayceee added 01:14 - Aug 11 Cook could have had a legitimate reason for a poor start to his Town career last season - that is - the team is not good enough. But... his job is to get the best out of them no matter how poor. We'd have had no issue with seeing our players give their all and still lose - but - fans were complaining, as was Cook that they were not trying - he lost the dressing room and we saw player motivation levels and effort fall away - because he turned against his own team. That lack of effort we saw last season WAS ON HIM... There was no lack of effort tonight - they were unlucky - but already he is starting to use the same language with the new players: "..if I'm being truthful, you just can't miss that many chances", That's not good management. I don't want to see him slowly destroy confidence and motivation from this so far highly motivated squad. I've never previously complained about our managers (Keane aside) and hated how fans treated MM. But seriously he may have done some good deals with the players we now have (we said that last season and the season before when players arrived), but he needs to start taking responsibility for man management, team selections and tactics and really needs to start winning games soon. 4 wins out of 18 so far is a reflection on him and he needs to show that he has what it takes too. Downvotes welcome - but I've yet to see much even vaguely impressive about Cook in his short time here so far. Fortunately, our new owners will be thinking the same thing.

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Suffolkboy added 02:20 - Aug 11 It's unfortunate ,but PC is just starting to become repetitive and uninteresting ,perhaps slightly boring in his commentary. Let's hope the tide turns in his favour with results which reflect our aspirations ,and which demonstrate we CAN capitalise on chances and actually put the ball in the net ! Quite simply every professional footballer should know instinctively how to effect a clean and cleanly directed strike ,but in front of goal an added sense of calm and focus will determine the outcome ! We need focus and clinical execution ; no excuse ,no explanation – perhaps some inspiration ! COYB

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hyperbrit added 04:17 - Aug 11 the skull candy of silly cups just gets in the way.Cook didn't criticize the players because they weren't players just skivers imo. His job was to get rid of them ASAP and that he did. Whether he can make a team of this lot remains to be seen but I'm prepared to give him time.
12

chevvymalc added 05:24 - Aug 11 No,news or comments on Norwood on for 5 minutes taken off leaving us with 10 men for yet another (Hamstring) problem. How long will he be sidelined this time???
3

Tufty added 05:43 - Aug 11 The records show we lost not how well we played or how many shots or how many times we hit the post.We lost again end of
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Saxonblue74 added 05:55 - Aug 11 There was a call for fans to be patient before the start of the season, the start of a new era. Hasn't lasted long has it?! Will anyone really look back at that result if we gain promotion this season? Jaycee, last season? Does it matter? And you've seen "nothing vaguely impressive from Cook"? If you've not been impressed by the part he's played in building an entire new squad in a matter of weeks then you're a difficult man to please!

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jayceee added 07:08 - Aug 11 @Saxonblue74 "not been impressed by the part he's played in building an entire new squad"? But that assumes I thought it was a good idea to fire and re-hire the whole team. I didn't. How many people said about our departing players: "Good player, wish him well, did not work out for him here - or does not fit Cooks style"... Cook is rigid in his style and unable to work with what he had - and lost the confidence of pretty much the whole team. That's not a good manager. I'd have rather seen fewer out, fewer in and a new manager that is competent, takes responsibility and is able to get the best out of players - not potentially destroy their confidence and trust.

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fatboyakasha added 07:10 - Aug 11 Christ, it looks like the end of the season already, reading some of these negative comments! 12th man? More like 12 men for the opposition. Get a grip all you fickle types, if you can't support the team after 2 games I suggest maybe football isn't the sport for you. Farcical.
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Europablue added 07:32 - Aug 11 jayceee It's Cook's job to choose the team and set them up tactically to be able to make chances and it's the players jobs to finish the chances. Stating the obvious and saying that we should have finished some of those many chances is not going to demotivate the team. If the fans don't give the players a chance, then they might demotivate them. Bottom line is that the results have not been good enough, but unlike last season the performances and effort have been good. Anyone who tells you that there is no improvement is lying and anyone telling you that we are the finished product is deluded.

9

borge added 07:36 - Aug 11 Poor first half that was similar to Saturday and no better than what we have seen for the past X number of years. Second half was fantastic and finally showed us what a Cook team is all about. Fast movement on and off the ball with decisive passing. Humphreys was a revelation. I have had some doubts but the second half showed me that we do need to be patient because the potential is there.

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Europablue added 07:37 - Aug 11 Tufty No-one is saying that they are happy with the result, unless they wanted to get out of the cup. It's clearly not good enough, but then again no-one is saying it is. We'll see how we go in the next one. Get a win and we've made a decent start to the season. If we can be just in the top 10 after 10 games that will be fine. Of course we need some points on the board, but we will get better as the season goes on.

3

Nobbysnuts added 07:44 - Aug 11 Are you sure it wasn't really really really well???
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Bazza8564 added 08:04 - Aug 11 10 changes, a competition we cant win, 25 shots, young kids playing, one chance created against us. Personally im encouraged and Cook wont be the slightest bit bothered about going out. Last season it would taken us 6-7 games to create 25 chances
4

ringwoodblue added 08:07 - Aug 11 Last season ended abysmally, pre-season was underwhelming and now the new season has started poorly. Performances aside, results haven't improved and that's disappointing. I understand why Cook made so many changes last night but the team he put out should have been good enough to beat Newport B team. The fans have been patient for long enough so results need to improve and improve quickly

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Bluearmy_81 added 08:26 - Aug 11 The players we had weren't good enough, that's why Cook got rid. Dozzell and Downes aside (and those fees have paid for excellent acquisitions) the players that have gone out have gone to league 1 or lower. We are building a side for the championship to challenge for the prem. He knows what he's doing. Give him time ffs, you all had endless patience for Evans, you gave him 14 years with hardly a grumble!!!

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