MANAGER Michael Flynn believes Newport County AFC showed their togetherness by their fast response to get goalkeeper Nick Townsend out of trouble in the dramatic win against Colchester United.

The Exiles looked set to drop two points – and lose their League Two top spot – when their stopper failed to gather a shot and saw U's striker Jevani Brown bundle home with a minute to play.

But County, who took the lead early in the second half through a thumping strike by in-form midfielder Scott Twine, rallied and went down the other end.

Sub Robbie Willmott won a corner, Mickey Demetriou's header was scrambled off the line and Padraig Amond poked home.

The leaders played some terrific football yet also showed resilience after the late blow to earn the praise of boss Flynn.

"I thought we should have scored more goals and then in the last 20 minutes they looked threatening," he said.

"Colchester are a very, very good team, one of the teams that I least like going up against because they can really hurt you.

"We should have been out of sight, we had over 20 shots again and I started to think that it wasn't to be.

South Wales Argus:

"I thought we would see it out at 1-0 but we kept going right till the very end and it was great to see Padraig get the winner.

"But that togetherness is the signs of a good team – when somebody makes a mistake their teammates dig them out of trouble."

After shutting out Tranmere, Stevenage and Bradford, County looked set for a fourth clean sheet on the spin until Townsend, who has made an excellent start to the campaign, failed to gather long-range shot from Kwame Poku.

"They scored from a mistake and that's good going against a team who are one of the best going forward in the league," said Flynn.

"Colchester are a very good team with some excellent players who are young, quick and hungry.

"It's always been a tough game against them and in the last 20 minutes they started probing and looking more dangerous without actually creating anything, but we got the three points so I was delighted."

County are two points clear of second-placed Cambridge and five ahead of fourth-placed Carlisle in the table.

Flynn repeated his mantra from the early stages of the season ahead of Saturday's tricky home fixture against a Harrogate side who have made an impressive start themselves after heading up from the National League.

"It's a very good start but I'm not getting carried away. There's a long way to go and we just have to keep improving," said Flynn.

"We will keep our feet firmly on the ground and we've just got to be lucky with injuries and suspensions.

"We've got some long trips coming up with Carlisle, Grimsby, Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, but first we have a very tough game against Harrogate on Saturday."