NEWPORT County AFC defender Kevin Feely is convinced he made the right decision in returning to the club this summer and says the Exiles can still enjoy a successful season.

The former Irish under-21 international penned a two-year deal with County in May following his release by Charlton Athletic.

But only after being persuaded by Justin Edinburgh to give up his plans play Gaelic football back home in Kildare and return to Rodney Parade where he excelled on loan at the end of last season.

“I’m pleased with how things have gone in the past couple of weeks,” said Feely, who is expected to line up alongside captain Darren Jones and Andrew Hughes in tonight’s League Two clash with Cambridge United.

“Initially it was pretty difficult because we lost the first three games and the cup match at Reading as well so that didn’t reflect too well on the defence.

“But I felt it was just individual errors that were letting us down rather than the overall performance of the defence.

“We weren’t actually playing that badly and it’s been shown in the last two games where we’ve looked solid at the back.

“So I’m a lot happier now than I was a couple of weeks ago.

“The main thing is that I’m playing regularly and that is great for me because it’s the first time that’s happened since I came over.

“I think I have made the right decision and the fact that I’m playing week in and week out at the moment justifies the decision I made.

“I’m enjoying my football more than ever because of that and it builds up a trust because there were opportunities there when we were conceding goals to maybe drop me,” added the 22-year-old.

“That would have been the manager saying ‘you’re part of the problem’ but the fact he didn’t and I’m playing every week has really built my confidence.”

And Feely feels that the win at Portsmouth last week and draw against high-flying Burton Albion shows the side’s potential.

“It’s too early in the season to be jumping to any conclusions about where we’re going to finish,” he said.

“We didn’t have the best start but our ambitions and our goals are still the same as they were in the summer and they’re still as achievable as they were then.

“And we’ve got two home games this week and four or six points puts us right back up there.”