Newport County boss Mike Flynn leapt to the defence of  Forest Green manager  Mark Cooper after his side cranked up the pressure with an emphatic 4-0 victory over the League Two strugglers.

Two-goal Padraig Amond played a pivotal part as he fired Newport County into the League Two play-offs with a brace, sending Forest Green back into the bottom two.

Amond grabbed his first on 15 minutes and his second on 41 minutes. Newport made certain of the points on 78 minutes – Scott Bennett smashing home from close range and substitute Shawn McCoulsky added a headed fourth on 86 minutes as Rovers offered no threat throughout the game.

“They’ve spent some money and I’m pretty certain that they will get out of it because they will have the funds to strengthen again in January,” said Flynn.

“And Mark Cooper is somebody who knows the league with Swindon and I think they will get out of it.”

Forest Green started brightly enough, but County soon found their feet as Amond pounced on Rovers’ defensive inadequacies.

And Flynn was delighted to see his side make it five wins out of the last six, he added: “It was a little bit of a slow start in the first five or ten minutes if I’m honest, we were just trying to get to grips with the game.

“But after that it was all one-way traffic, the boys, they were brilliant and what an away performance that was.

“I’ve been asking them to take more of their chances and today they did that, they were ruthless, could have had a few more if I’m being a little bit picky.”