DAVE Jones saw Hartlepool United crumble to a 3-1 defeat at Newport County, as they were outmuscled and rolled over by the Football League’s bottom side.

The new boss had a say in last weekend’s win over Stevenage, but this was a different story.

He started with the same team, but they were up against it from the first minute as the Exiles played their normal long-ball and physical game engineered by boss Graham Westley.

All the goals came from corners, as Pools failed to deal with set-pieces.

The opener came on 16 minutes, when a set-piece from David Pipe was floated into the six yard area and Ryan Bird, the former Pools loanee, planted a free header in from close range.

Number two arrived on 57 minutes – and it was far too easy. Floated to the penalty spot, the ball was headed on twice before Aaron Williams, standing on the line, nodded in.

And the third followed on 72 minutes. Another right sided corner was half cleared but left-back Dan Butler raced onto the ball to fire a first-time shot home.

Pools failed to make any inroads on the home side, with keeper Joe Day having an easy afternoon until the 90th minute.

Sean Kavanagh crossed from the left and substitute Padraig Amond got in behind the defence to turn home.

Jones said: “We knew what to expect and we knew what to expect and we didn’t deal with it. We’ve got to play and try and play our own game, but on that pitch you can’t. But they are a young squad, a young team and they will learn from it.

“We didn’t adapt to circumstances, we didn’t deal with it but there’s some positives from it and we have to learn from it.

“Sometimes you have to put your foot through it rather than trying to play football and get on with it. There’s no complaints, there’s no way they were going to score from open play so we have to deal with it all better.

“They play for corners and free-kicks and we didn’t deal with them.’’

NEWPORT COUNTY (3-4-3): Day; Jones (Demetriou 82), Nelson, O’Brien; Pipe, Bennett, Rose (Flynn 78), Butler; Reid, Williams (Samuel 86), Bird. Subs: Sheehan, Bojaj, Rigg, Bittner.

HARTLEPOOL UNITED (4-3-3): Bartlett; Donnelly, Bates, Harrison, Kavanagh; Walker, Featherstone, Woods (Smith 55); Hawkins (Laurent 85), Oates (Amond 67), Alessandra. Subs: Deverdics, Martin, Richardson, Fryer (gk).

Referee: Kevin Johnson (Weston-Super-Mare)

Attendance: 2271 (103 away fans)