Having pegged Newport back to 2-1 early in the second half, Craig Dawson felt the manner and timing of County’s third goal knocked the stuffing out of an inexperienced Watford side.
Adalberto Peñaranda’s penalty looked to have given the Hornets a lifeline, but the tie was effectively over when the hosts restored their two-goal advantage with 25 minutes left to play, sealing a place in the Carabao Cup fourth round for the first time in their history.
“The second half we were much better, we started brighter and you could see the substitutions the manager made helped us, but it was disappointing to concede the third when we did and that took the wind out of us a little bit,” said Dawson, speaking to Hive Live immediately after full-time.
“It was a tough game, we made a few errors and it cost us. There were plenty of young lads on the pitch tonight so it was great experience for those guys and hopefully we can all learn from the mistakes.
“They [Newport] are a good side, they might be two leagues below us but they played well tonight and deserved the win in the end because we had too many mistakes in our camp and hopefully we can get rid of those errors.”
Despite disappointment at losing to lower league opposition, Dawson insists there are crumbs of comfort to take from a largely frustrating night in Wales.
“We’ll take the positives and there are plenty of games coming up, so everybody needs to be ready and fully focused for the next game,” said the defender.
“Some of the lads have got 90 minutes tonight and that was important for some of us, so we’ll learn from tonight, take it on the chin and go again at the weekend.
“It’s all about recovery now so we’ll switch our attention to [the Luton] game and we know how important that game is, so we’ll be ready for it and up for it.”
