THE pre-season friendlies may be over for Newport County AFC but there is still plenty of hard work to be done before the League Two kick-off on August 8, according to Alex Rodman.

The winger played his first 90 minutes at Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday night having recovered from an ankle injury picked up in the Exiles’ first friendly against Undy at the start of the month.

Rodman, signed from Gateshead this summer, could do with more game-time before County begin their league campaign at Cambridge United.

But the 28-year-old will be working hard on his fitness on the training pitch and he says the squad as a whole may benefit from a full week of tactical drills with manager Terry Butcher and his coaching staff.

“I felt a bit leggy in my calves and my quads in the last 20 minutes but that is inevitable in my first 90,” said Rodman after the 2-2 draw at Weston.

“I feel good. Obviously we haven’t got any more friendlies now so it will be mainly running and fitness work for me.

“We’ve got just over a week to go before the new season and I’m raring to go.

“We will be grinding out exactly how we want to play on the training pitch,” he added.

“We’ve tried a few formations and we will just perfect exactly how we want to play. That’s the main objective now.

“We are still getting to know each other; it’s a very new squad.

“And the gaffer will want to keep hammering it home exactly how he wants us to play and what we can do to be as effective as possible this season.”

Rodman is happy to have finally linked up with Butcher after a move to Hibernian broke down last summer when the former England captain was sacked following the Edinburgh club’s relegation to the Scottish Championship.

“I agreed my deal to go up to Hibernian with him when I was at Grimsby,” said Rodman. “There is a legal side of that I’m dealing with at the moment.

“I was disappointed not to sign for him up there but really delighted that he wanted to bring me to Newport.

“It’s a place that’s close to my heart because my mum was born not too far away and my grandparents live half an hour away and are followers of Newport so it was an easy decision to come here.”