Exiles midfielder Sean Rigg came off the bench to inspire the side to a 1-1 home draw with Mansfield Town on Saturday.
Rigg’s introduction coincided with a change in the County formation, with the 29-year old moving to the wide left position of a 4-3-3 system, after Mike Flynn had elected to change from the familiar 3-5-2 setup in search of a goal.
The midfielder created a host of opportunities for his team-mates during an impactful performance, eventually resulting in Shawn McCoulsky’s equaliser in the 69th minute.
Post-match, Rigg spoke exclusively to iFollow Exiles about that goal, how the conditions affected the game at Rodney Parade and his thoughts ahead of another tough test at Notts County next week.
On the Mansfield game…
“Yeah, I think it was a good result in the end.
“Obviously, as a team we’re disappointed that we didn’t get all three points but I thought we played really well, especially in the second-half.
“I think we really put on the pressure, dominated most of the second-half so yeah, it’s a bit disappointing but we’ll take a point.
“Mansfield have got some good players but as we showed today, we were ahead of them really especially in the second-half.
“We played really well, got on top, had chances so we’ll definitely take some positives from today.”
On a wet and windy afternoon at Rodney Parade…
“It changed the game a little bit obviously with the wind.
“It does get a bit frantic and a bit messy because of it but I thought we adapted well to keep it down.
“We switched the ball well, got the ball out to Frank Nouble who did really well and got at his player so I think everyone put in a shift today. We stuck to what we know and played well as a result.”
On Shawn McCoulsky scoring for the fourth successive game…
“He’s super sub at the minute really.
“He’s coming on and doing really well. I think you can even see his hold-up play is improving loads and he’s just always in the right place and therefore putting the ball in the back of the net.
“That’s his job at the end of the day so fair play to him, he’s a young lad and doing really well.
“I would have thought he’d be pushing for a start now. I would think that’s what’s going through his mind as-well but it’s a tricky one.
“He’s coming on and doing well and scoring the goals. I don’t see why he wouldn’t get his chance now but we’ll have to see.”
On the amount of goals scored by the Exiles this season…
“Plenty more goals this year.
“I think we do need to start chipping in as-well from different positions. For myself, I need to get going on the goal front but as soon as I get the first, I know they’ll start coming.
“I think everyone is trying to do the right thing, getting into those good positions and I think once we start putting all the chances away then we’ll be a real problem.”
On nearly scoring an own-goal with his first touch of the afternoon…
“It was a bit of a funny one really!
“I did feel him behind me and I was kind of in two minds thinking is he going to go for it or is he not.
“Then I ended up going for it and he nudged me a little bit so it came off the wrong-part of my head.
“To hit your own post with your first touch is a bit of a shaky one but luckily it didn’t go in!”
On facing second place Notts County next weekend…
“I think we’ve shown that we can do it against the so-called big teams already this season.
“I think people are looking at us now and thinking we’re the team to beat in many ways this year.
“We’ll go there with confidence because there’s nothing to shy away from. We’ll go there, enjoy it, and hopefully get the three points.”