Matty Dolan enjoyed a rare outing in defence as Newport County AFC beat Brighton & Hove Albion U21s on penalties in the Leasing.Com Trophy and insisted he would be willing to continue in that role if called upon.
The midfielder hasn’t been featuring as regularly as he would want but with the Club struck with an injury crisis, 26-year-old Dolan was asked to fill in at the back alongside teenager Joe Woodiwiss.
The Exiles gave a good account of themselves at the Amex and could have booked safe passage through to the third round of the competition inside the 90 minutes but couldn’t add the finishing touch.
“We done alright going forward but it’s just that final clinical edge that we need to improve on,” said Dolan.
“But we got the job done in the end.
“[It’s] a few quid for the club and obviously important for the lads to get that experience.
“I thought the young boys were fantastic. Joe alongside me, Dom Jefferies was fantastic, Lewis [Collins] didn’t stop running all day.”
At the back, Dolan showed his experience to keep the young Seagulls out and claim the first clean sheet of his County career.
“I’ve been in and out of the side and I need to play football,” he added.
“I’m desperate to be playing. I want to play every minute for the club.
“I’ve racked up a few games for the club in the last couple of seasons but the more games I am playing the more match sharpness you get.
“We’ve got a very depleted squad at the minute so it was ‘go in and do a job’.
“It wasn’t too bad. I haven’t played there for a long, long time, maybe when I was a bit younger.
“It’s quite nice to see the whole picture, those nippy strikers running in behind weren’t my favourite but I enjoyed it on the whole.
“If need [be] I obviously would [play in defence again] but I think our centre-halves are fantastic, we’ve got Mickey [Demetriou] coming back. I think OB [Mark O’Brien] and Ryan Inniss have been absolutely fantastic, and Kyle [Howkins] when he’s played.
“You can just look at the defensive record over the last six months, it’s been absolutely fantastic so they have been a credit to themselves in that position.”