Newport debutant Luke Jephcott shares his thoughts after stepping foot on the Rodney Parade pitch for the first time.
Luke Jephcott signed for the Exiles from St. Johnstone in January after spending time in the Scottish Premiership before moving to South Wales.
Narrowly missing Coughlan’s squad for the Manchester United FA cup clash, he made his first appearance for Newport County against his former club Swindon Town on Saturday afternoon.
Jephcott entered the Rodney Parade field in place of Aaron Wildig in the 84th minute to a loud and proud welcome from the Amber Army and it was an experience that Jephcott found memorable: “It was an amazing feeling to make my debut,” began the welshman.
“For me personally it was nice to be back on the pitch and playing again.
“I thought the fans created a really positive atmosphere and that really helped us throughout the game.”
There is surely no better time to make your debut than to secure the three points against your former club, and that’s exactly what happened for Jephcott on Saturday: “It was definitely positive.
“To make my debut was amazing, but more importantly we got the hard fought three points in the derby!”
Despite the scoreline, the game wasn’t a straightforward one, Manager Graham Coughlan shared his frustrations with the first-half performance during his post-match interview stating "If we can talk about the second-half only, I'd be delighted, because we simply weren't at it in the first-half," began the manager.
"We have to realise we just played a game against Manchester United, we gave our all, came back from 2-0 down and so we knew that flatness would be there.
"I wasn't happy we had to go 1-0 down to kick-start us, but look, let's brush the first-half under the carpet, put it down to last weekend's events and let's praise the players and fans for their incredible efforts in the second-half."
Jephcott echoed the sentiment: “I think we played okay in parts of the first-half,” he started.
“Swindon had some chances early on, but we defended well and dug deep which is important,” Jephcott added.
“In the second-half though, we got into a bit of rhythm and started to control the game. Will [Evans] and Seb [Palmer-Houlden] showed their class with their goals, but overall it was a hard fought three points and a solid team performance.”
It’s Walsall next up for the Exiles and Jephcott believes the lads are up for the test: “We’re working hard on the training ground and preparing well.
“I’m sure we will be doing plenty of analysis in the coming days, we'll take note from that and look to put it into practise on Saturday afternoon.”
Jephcott has made his first step into the Newport side now and shares his next set of targets: “The targets for the second-half of the season has to be to continue to get as many points as possible and continue to climb the league,” the striker started.
“We’ve put together a good run of results and the confidence from those results I feel is showing.
“On a personal level, I am hoping to score goals for the club and continue to help the team accumulate as many points as we can!”
You can watch Jephcott and the Amber Army back in action this Saturday when they visit the Poundland stadium to face Mat Sadler’s Walsall side, secure your tickets HERE.