Newport County AFC manager Michael Flynn has been speaking to the press ahead of the League Two fixture with Bradford City this Saturday.
This sees the Exiles return to league action after their cup match on Wednesday that saw them narrowly bow out on penalties to Salford City.
Saturday's match sees Flynn come up against one of his former sides, with the manager still full of admiration for the Valley Parade side, “I loved my time at Bradford, in terms of getting to pull on the shirt and being captain as well. It’s a huge club at this level. Times weren’t always great on the pitch, there was a lot going on off it, but the fans stuck together.
“They wanted players who were proud to wear the shirt and it’s no different here. We’re obviously a smaller club, but the fans want to see players who put a shift in week in and week out.”
Bantams manager Stuart McCall was also praised by Flynn, “Stuart McCall was the reason I signed for Bradford, to be honest. He’s someone I’ve got huge respect for, he’s a fantastic man on and off the pitch.
“If you speak to anyone who played for him, they’ll tell you the same. If they don’t, it means they didn’t put a shift in for him and he got rid of them. If you gave your all, he’d give it back to you in spades so I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
County are coming off the back of a narrow Leasing.Com Trophy exit, though Flynn believes there are only small adjustments to be made if Newport are to rediscover that winning feeling.
Flynn stated, “I thought the performance was decent and solid enough, even their manager said after the game that we were the better team over the 90 minutes.
“We’ve just got to find that way of scoring, it’s something that we’ve been working on and I’m sure we’ll put it right. They want that good feeling back of winning games and I’m sure that it will be sooner rather than later.”
The manager is also determined to not let the season finish with a whimper, “It won’t fade out, I won’t let it fade out. To be fair to them, not one of them in there want that to happen.
We’ve got to finish on a positive. We’re all in this together, that includes the fans. On the whole, they’ve always supported us through thick and thin. Let’s get ready to go on a bit of a run.”