Newport Captain Ryan Delaney shared his thoughts after the Exiles exited the Bristol Street Motors trophy at the hands of Bristol Rovers on Tuesday evening.
Despite causing a strong League One side issues during the tie, Rovers’ quality showed, as a superb strike in the 37th minute would prove to be the difference in progressing into the knockout stage and exiting the competition.
Skipper Ryan Delaney wasn't disheartened by the performance though, as he was keen to pinpoint the positives from Tuesday night: “There is positives to take from the game, even though it wasn’t the outcome we had hoped for,” began Delaney.
“We showed in large spells of the game that we caused a solid League One side problems throughout, and on another day, we take our chances and could have nicked it.”
There was positive news on the injury front too as Newport saw the return of two important players in long-standing Exile, James Clarke and Bristol City loanee, Seb Palmer-Houlden who were both met with standing ovations from the Amber Army, a suitable welcome back to the Rodney Parade pitch.
Delaney was also pleased to see his teammates take to the pitch in a competitive nature once more: “The return of the lads (James and Seb) is brilliant for us.
The quality they bring individually and the freshness they’ll bring to the squad as a whole, will be beneficial for the team. We’ll need all our players to be ready for the tough run of games we have coming up, and having the lads back, will be a massive boost,” he confirmed.
Newport are back in action in the coming weeks when they first travel to the One Call stadium to face Mansfield Town (Saturday November 18) and the weekend following as they host top of the league, Stockport County (Saturday November 25). Newport’s first hurdle is unbeaten Mansfield but Delaney is confident his side will compete: “Mansfield have started really well this season, I feel like they’re carrying on from where they finished last season.”
“They’re really good team with some high calibre players so we’ll know we all have to be on it this Saturday and ready for the task in hand,” he continued.
“We back ourselves against every side we come up against, and this is no different. I think we have shown the level of quality and togetherness and of course we’ll be looking to continue that as we head into these games.”
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