Mike Flynn says victory over Yeovil was a “huge” result but has urged his players to not get complacent as they look towards Plymouth, writes Ryan Robinson.
Mickey Demetriou scored the game’s only goal on Friday with a 25-yard free-kick.
And Flynn says the performance has added another team into the “relegation dogfight.”
“It’s a huge result and we have now pulled Yeovil right into it as-well,” he said.
“We’ve clawed back 10 points from eight games, it’s a huge effort from the players and they were absolutely outstanding.
“They felt quite comfortable today in terms of they looked solid again, got another clean sheet and did the right things in the right areas. Our build up play was good and I’m proud of them.
“We have a difficult away fixture on Monday so it’s no time to bask in happiness and we need to concentrate solely on Monday.”
The result means County are only a point from safety as they prepare to take on the Pilgrims, who themselves only need a point to be promoted at Home Park.
But Flynn was optimistic that his side could keep the Pilgrims’ champagne on ice for another week.
He said: “We’ll go there with full respect of Plymouth. They are a very good team, good management, very close to League 1 now so good luck to them. Hopefully, we can delay their promotion for another week.”
“They’re a really good team, they’ve done really well this season,” he added.
“We’ve had some great battles with them this season and always come up short so let’s hope that we can go a bit further and get three points down there because that would be huge, a massive achievement for the boys.
“It would send a huge message to the rest of the league.”
Two players to be singled out for praise after the Yeovil victory were midfielders Sean Rigg and Mark Randall.
On Rigg: “It’s a massive boost to have Riggy back. He was outstanding when he came on. He relieves pressure, he wins free-kicks in good areas and it allows the back 4 or 5 to have a breather and re-organise. He’s crucial for us.
On Randall: “I’ve just said to him you’ve shown you can do it now on the scruffy pitches so there’s no excuses. He was outstanding again. We were making the right decisions and Mark bought into that – sometimes it has to go long because you need to take the pressure off your team. “
Flynn also wanted to lavish praise again on the fantastic Rodney Parade support – with a near 4,000 crowd in attendance for the Yeovil game.
He said: “The crowd are fantastic and the more we can get through the gate, it’s only a plus for us because they are outstanding. You hear them singing at the end and at the beginning – the boys can hear that and it gives them a burst.”
Some early team-news for Monday’s game concerns Mark O’Brien.
The 24-year-old was taken off at half-time through illness and Mickey Demetriou seemed to take a knock late on.
But Flynn he will check every player when the team return to training today.
“We’re back on Sunday so we’ll check it then and see who’s right and who needs a rest. Two games in four days in difficult and I might need to freshen up the team.”