Newport Captain Ryan Delaney was encouraged by his sides performance against a strong Crewe side on Friday evening and is looking to ensure the Exiles continue the momentum into their new years day clash with Sutton United.
Newport shared the spoils with the Railwaymen at Rodney Parade on Friday evening. A strike from Chris Long early in the second-half put the visitors one goal ahead, they weren’t ahead for long though, as a tidy run from McLoughlin set Evans in on goal and the striker blasted it home to equalise the scores. It was Newport who looked the more likely to go on and win the clash after Crewe were forced down to 10 men when Williams went down injured. The Exiles had a number of shots saved by Booth in goal but eventually Referee Speedie blew for full-time. You can read the full match report HERE.
“It’s a positive result,” began Delaney.
“I think you could see in spells why they are up the higher end of the table, and I think we’ve shown that over large spells we were equal to them, if not better than them.
“I think we need to use that as extra motivation now, if we can bring the consistency to our game and bring positive results on a consistent basis we should be finding ourselves in a similar position to Crewe and the teams above.”
It’s a fast turnaround now for the Exiles as they approach the final clash of the relentless festive schedule. Most EFL teams will have played four competitive league matches in just nine days heading into New Years Day and Delaney shared how his side will prepare for the clash: “The games are coming think and fast,” confirmed the skipper.
“There’s very little time to recover, so I think it’s a case of go out there and get yourself going. I also think it’s the adrenaline that drives you through the games even when individuals in the squad are fatigued.
“We have a strong dressing room, they’re motivated, hard-working and most-importantly they're grafters so we’ll be ready for it on New Years day.”
It’s Sutton United who await the Exiles on New Years Day and despite Sutton’s struggles of late, Delaney confirmed he and his side will rightfully approach the clash the same as any other: “I think Sutton will be a tough battle, no doubt about that,” explained the Captain.
“I think it’ll be similar to the game against Crewe. It’ll be an aggressive, physical game, a proper League Two encounter you could call it.
“We need to play our own game, be right at it physically, and ensure we are supplying the lads up top, as you can see with Will [Evans] everything he touches ends up in the back of the net, same with Seb he’s a handful for defenders, so we just need to keep feeding those two up top.”
The Amber Army have backed the Exiles in good numbers recently with 3,926 spurring the players on to a hard-fought point yesterday evening. The Newport skipper was quick to highlight the importance the fantastic support plays when they’re on the pitch: “The fans have been great, particularly the last couple of games,” he began.
“When you’re feeling that bit fatigued and you hear them get behind us, it really does spur you on.
“The other day [Boxing Day] it probably wasn’t the easiest game to watch for them, especially the first half, you could call it a comedy show but the second half, we tidied up and got the job done and I think that’s what we tried to bring into our game with Crewe.
“I have to thank the fans, they constantly drive us forward and keep us going. They’ve been great with us all season, even in tough times, when it perhaps would’ve been easier to turn their back on us, they stuck with us and we have to thank them as a group and as a whole club.”
You can secure your tickets for the Exiles’ trip to the VBS community stadium on New Years Day in Sutton on the day of the game.