The Newport skipper reflects on the past few weeks as well as looking ahead to this weekend’s clash with Swindon Town.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the ‘Port with the takeover of Huw Jenkins OBE, the signing of striker Luke Jephcott from St. Johnstone, a welsh rival win and a huge FA Cup clash with Manchester United and it doesn’t stop there, Newport County face Swindon Town this coming Saturday and another huge crowd is expected to turnout and back the Exiles as they hunt for another set of three points against Gavin Gunning’s men.
Sunday’s match with the Red Devils was not one to be missed. Despite the Exiles coming out on the wrong side of the result, the resilience and character shown was admirable. Ten Haag's men started the clash well with two quick fire goals from Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo. The Exiles were not phased though as Morris fired in a rocket of his own to bring Newport a goal back. Newport then carried this momentum into the second half as Will Evans beat Varane to the cross and turned it home to bring the Exiles level at 2-2. It remained tied until Anthony knocked in a rebounded shot and Hojlund eventually netted one for himself deep into added time to conclude the clash. Despite the loss, captain Ryan Delaney was incredibly encouraged by his side’s performance: “I’m really proud of the lads for their efforts on Sunday,” he started.
“They [teammates] showed a lot of determination and grit, the whole group played their part.
“The atmosphere in the stadium really gave us a boost, we knew going into the game that we’d be able to feed off the atmosphere our supporters were creating, and I think we did that as well as thriving off pure adrenaline.”
“Sunday's performance showed the levels that we are capable of producing. The last couple of weeks we’ve just been working on building on each result and I think Sunday was no different, possibly up there with one of the best performances we’ve had this year against an unbelievable side, in [Manchester] United,” Delaney stated.
“Going two-nil down, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb but as we’ve shown throughout this season, we have the togetherness in the group that we stick together in tough times and rather than crumble, we fight back.”
It’s fair to say that It’s not the result that everyone is South Wales would've wanted but there is so many positives to take from the Exiles' Emirates FA Cup campaign confirmed the Captain: “Yes, it’s disappointing,” he began. “We have to look at how far we’ve come in this competition, with two replays against four very tough and well organised teams in Oldham, Barnet, Eastleigh and Manchester United.
"As a group we’ve got to look at it and know we’ve given our all throughout the whole campaign and hoping we can ‘kick-on’ now and take the momentum back into the league.”
Next up for the Exiles it’s Swindon Town. Swindon are currently 14th in league two but are level on points with Newport. Our clash with the Robins earlier this season, wasn’t an enjoyable one as Swindon beat Newport 2-0 at the County ground. Ryan Delaney is looking for his side to battle back and take revenge this time around: “It’s going to be a tough game,” confirmed the defender. “We played them earlier this season, when we weren’t doing as well, they [Swindon] were probably the better team on the day and the scoreline reflected that.
“We’re expecting them to bring attacking quality, they always have over the years that I’ve faced them, we’ll just have to limit these opportunities and chances and play our own game and continue to feed the attackers in our group, which are on fire at the moment, so it’s going to be another exciting game for us.”
You can secure your tickets for Saturday’s League Two clash with Swindon Town by clicking HERE.