Crestfallen County chief Christian Fuchs was struggling to fathom how his men had twice led at the MEM Priestfield Stadium - only to spin to a 3-2 defeat, conceding twice in the added 15 minutes of a crazy clash.
Superb goals by Michael Spellman and substitute Cameron Antwi seemed to have clinched all three points for Newport with 84 minutes gone on the clock, this after Conor Masterson had levelled early for the Gills.
But a spot-kick from home skipper Armani Little on 91 minutes and then a winner from diminutive substitute Gareth McCleary eight minutes later undid all the terrific play from a much-improved Port display.
An emotional Fuchs reflected, "I'm standing here with opponents telling me how well we've played, but we have no points from the game. We had some good early chances, but there were definite dips within our performance. This is something we clearly need to address.
"We can play well, but we have to do much better in defence. The penalty was unfortunate in that the young player [Tanatswa Nyakuhwa] took a touch in the box when he should have cleared the ball first time. But we should have done much better with the two goals we did concede.
" You could see the reaction of their staff, crowd and players. Everyone was very happy with the win - that showed we gave them a real hard time."
Fuchs went on, "The players have it in them, I can see what they are capable of, but we have no points from the game."
Fuchs did pick out the all-action display of borrowed Shrewsbury Town midfielder Harrison Biggins, who had an excellent County debut saying, "He ran 12km during the match. He was box-to-box and will be a great signing for us, no question."
Austrian Fuchs was also pleased with the display of on loan Swindon central defender Ryan Devaney who was another bright light in this disappointing set back in Kent.
He said, "Devaney played really well, he left it all out there."