NEWPORT County boss Justin Edinburgh is closing in on Peterborough goalkeeper Joe Day but is refusing to write-off either Lenny Pidgeley or Jamie Stephens.

The Argus can reveal that talks with Peterborough over the Day deal have continued with Newport confident they have done enough to convince the player to join the ranks at Rodney Parade.

The 24-year old, nicknamed Superman by his teammates, has just returned to London Road at the conclusion of his 93-day emergency loan.

The Exiles can now only target a permanent deal for the player who is out of contract in the summer, with the League One outfit insisting on a fee for the young Englishman.

However, County aren’t put off and have been in ongoing discussions about a structured payment deal.

And Edinburgh is hopeful it can be completed soon, even though he’s also keeping an open mind to both Stephens and Pidgeley.

"I don't foresee any problems. Everything is ticking along nicely," Edinburgh said.

“We are hoping that we will be able to make an announcement on Joe and maybe give our fans a nice little Christmas present.

“We are close to having everything agreed and then can crack on with the paper work.

“We aren’t talking about a huge fee here, I think it’s a little more than we paid for Jolls (Christian Jolley) but it’s certainly not a massive fee.

"We've structured a deal with Peterborough so we haven't got to pay a large amount upfront, we can structure it over the course of Joe's contract.”

Edinburgh doesn’t expect the deal to change his plans for January with the club looking at the Day deal as a one-time opportunity.

“We don’t have a transfer budget, I’m not taking anything from that, we are still at our limits and this is just us moving for what we believe is a player we can’t do without It hasn't come out of the budget. There was not a lot, if anything, in the budget anyway."

Edinburgh isn’t ruling out Lenny Pidgeley forcing his way back into the side despite preferring ex-Liverpool man Jamie Stephens at Carlisle last weekend.

"I had a decision to make at the weekend. Jamie had played more football of late than Lenny, I felt he looked a bit sharper in training and we wanted to reward that,” Edinburgh said.

"There is a place up for grabs and it is up to Lenny to impress me and the staff in training.”

However, Edinburgh admits Pidgeley is one of a few players who could depart in January.

The competition is vital, but if Lenny sees otherwise they are discussions that may be had over the next couple of weeks,” he said.

"We may look to shuffle the pack because there are players that may need to go out on loan to get football. There may be players that feel they want to move on from the club and we will assess that once the window opens.

“We have a little period now where we don’t have games and we are just assessing things and seeing how we go before the window re-opens.”