Michael Flynn hailed an “absolutely outstanding” first-half performance from his team after Newport hammered Scunthorpe 4-0 at Rodney Parade.

A comfortable victory for the Welsh side means their Sky Bet League Two play-off hopes remain in their own hands with two games of the regular season left to play.

Scunthorpe defender George Taft put through his own net to get Newport off and running and Mickey Demetriou and Lewis Collins made it 3-0 at the break.

Demetriou’s second capped off a clinical Newport performance against a poor Scunthorpe side.

“We have a tough game against Cheltenham on Saturday, but it doesn’t matter what other teams do,” said a delighted Flynn.

“If we win our last two games then we will be in the play-offs. I’m straight down the line with the players and anything I say in the media I have already said to them.

“I don’t do it very often, but sometimes I single out a player. I can’t do that now because I thought we were absolutely outstanding in the first half.

“We had 77 per cent possession in the first half which is unheard of for a Newport County team. If you look at the first goal, I think there were nearly 20 passes before the goal.

“It goes in off the defender, but he had to make a decision because of the cross. It’s three more points and hopefully we can finish strongly.”

Newport were dominant from start to finish and moved up to sixth with victory. They host leaders Cheltenham on Saturday in what is a huge game.

Scunthorpe manager Neil Cox said: “That puts us in trouble. I said to the players we need to get to 50 points and that’s still the main thing for us. I’m not worried about anyone else.

“In the first 15 minutes I thought we were OK, but then we had the own goal and then a bad 15-minute period. We hoofed the ball away and didn’t pass it.

“We went back to the bad old ways of dropping deep and feeling sorry for ourselves. The headed goals were really disappointing from our point of view, but I’m not going to batter the players.

“They are low and we still need results.

“I don’t think I’ve lost the players. They are fragile, so there is no point beating them up. We have to show fighting spirit now and I’m still 100 per cent committed to this football club.”