CAPTAIN Andy Sandell has urged manager Justin Edinburgh to stay at Newport County AFC, insisting Gillingham would not be a step up.

County manager Edinburgh has been strongly linked with a move to the Priestfield Stadium this week and remains the bookies’ favourite to replace Peter Taylor, who was sacked on New Year’s Eve.

And, while the Exiles boss claims there has been no contact between the clubs, he has refused to rule himself out of the running for the Gills job.

But skipper Sandell doesn’t believe Edinburgh and assistant Jimmy Dack should be tempted away from a League Two promotion push at Rodney Parade to a League One relegation battle with Gillingham.

“We all want him to stay and I don’t think he’ll take it,” said Sandell ahead of this weekend’s trip to Cambridge United.

“I’d be surprised if he goes. I don’t think it’s a better job. It’s closer to his house but nowadays that means nothing.

“Look at where Gillingham are in the league – next season we could be in League One and they could be in League Two – so it’s not a good job for him.

“If I was in his shoes I wouldn’t take it but everyone is different and everyone has different opinions on things.

“Hopefully he’ll still be here but it’s the first I’ve heard of it today so it hasn’t been a distraction,” he added.

“It’s not a shock that he’s being linked with jobs because he’s done so well here but I don’t see him and Dacky going anywhere.”

Edinburgh stock has risen steadily over the last few years having guided County from the Conference relegation zone to third in League Two.

Sandell believes many of the club’s promotion rivals will be writing the Exiles off after their collapse in the second half of last season but that doesn’t bother him.

“Everyone is buzzing at the moment and that is showing on the pitch,” he said.

“We’ve just got to keep going out there and performing and enjoying our football.

“We don’t really talk about it [being third]. There’s no pressure on us,” he added.

“I think people are still writing us off, especially after last season when we were up there and then after Christmas we faded away.

“This year it will be different because we’ll learn from the mistakes we made last year.

“I don’t think people expect us to maintain the form we’re on but we’ll just keep going.

“It doesn’t matter to me what people think about us because I know how good we are and how motivated we are in the dressing room.

“If people want to write us off that’s fair enough and if people want to put more pressure on us we’ll just take it on the chin and keep going.”