Graham Westley: What the new Newport County AFC boss had to say on his first day in charge at Rodney Parade

Westley met the media at the Wales National Velodrome in Newport where he was officially unveiled as the man to succeed Warren Feeney who was sacked late last month.

Here's what Westley had to say when speaking about his decision to join the club currently bottom of Sky Bet League Two and his hopes for the future.

Q. You must be confident that, having taken the job, you can turn things around?

A. “I don’t think it’s ever about turning something around, I think it’s just about pushing forward from wherever you are at any club.

“What I do know is that if you work really hard and really smart, and know your job, you’ll always go forward.

“My focus is to get in, get to know the lads, get to know the club and do my best to help the club become better than it is at this moment in time.”

Q. You watched the game on Saturday. What did you make of it? Did you think there was something to work with there?

A. “I don’t think it’s just about looking at the game on Saturday, I think it’s knowing the players at the club.

“There are some terrific lads at this club, no question about it.

“If you look at lads like Joe Day the keeper and Ben Tozer, they were producing levels of performance at the weekend, and in general, that you’d have to say are Championship level, not League Two.

“There are footballers here who have got capability and potential way beyond the level that the club is at right now, and I’ve mentioned but two.

“There are great possibilities at any club if you harness the lads, help them and move them forward.”

Q. Would you say the team is in a false position?

A. “No. The club are where they are. You’re never in a false position. You get what you deserve in life and in football, and the club is where it is.

“We know we’ve got some work to do but I don’t think work scares anybody at the club.

“Certainly talking to the board and the people I’ve met around the place, everybody knows that hard work is the essence of success and everybody is geared up for it.”

Q. What can the fans expect from your team?

“What any group of fans should expect from their football team is that they go into games fit to do the job, organised to win the game, and giving the fans a level of commitment and desire the fans would expect.

“The one thing people who know this club have said to me, people who have played at the club, is this is as passionate a group of fans as you will find.

“And when you’ve got that as a tool and an asset to harness you give yourself an even greater chance because players respond to the passion from the terraces, players respond to what it is that the fans give to them.

“You give what you get and you get what you give, and that philosophy of the fans bringing their passion to bear on the players and the players giving it back to them is always a beautiful thing to have as a manager.

“It’s the fans contributing to the club, it’s the players giving to the fans in equal measure in terms of the passion that they’ve got for winning.”

Q. Do you know what you’re going to do with your backroom team?

A. “I’ve brought my assistant from Stevenage and Preston, Dino Maamria, in with me.

“Dino is a highly qualified UEFA Pro Licence coach and a guy who I know well, and who knows me well.

“We’ve always worked well together. We sing off the same hymn sheet in terms of our beliefs.

“We have our occasional disagreement with each other but we understand each other and we are both committed people in terms of winning, so that’s terrific.

“You’re in a situation where the transfer window is shut and you’re going to have to work together, whether you like it or not.

“I’m looking forward to working with the group of lads that are here. I know there are some really experienced boys here and a lot of lads that know what it takes to win.

“We’ve got to harness those players, work with those players, they’ve got to work with us, and we’ve all got to come together to create a collective winning way.

“As a manager, if you walk in and say this is my winning way or the highway then you are going to fail in this day and age.

“You’ve got to come in, you’ve got to listen and collectively work it out with your lads.

“I know a way of winning, I’m sure a lot of the lads will know ways of winning, and we’ve got to find one that we can all buy into which is going to take this club forward.”

Q. How much of a challenge is this for you?

A. “I don’t intend for Preston North End to be the biggest club I’ve ever managed when I come to the end of my career.

“I want to go forward in my career and get to the very top.

“I put a lot of hard work in at Stevenage with back-to-back promotions and being top six in League One in order to move from non-League to a club like Preston.

“It didn’t work out and that’s history now, there’s no point crying over that.

“I’ve got a great opportunity here to grab hold of a club and show what I can do as a manager.

“And I fully intend to work with Newport County to make it as good as it possibly can be.

“We are where we are, we all know that, but that’s a big part of the opportunity.”

Q. What’s your initial assessment of where Newport County are?

A. “You couldn’t get a better training facility than this (Dragon Park) could you? You’ve got an international velodrome, you’ve got the international football team that trains on your doorstep, and this is a complex that has got everything you want in terms of sports science and facilities.

“In the end, that’s what you need to produce a winning football team.

“If you’ve got the facilities on your doorstep then it’s just about using them.

“If you’ve got the expertise on your doorstep it’s just about using it.

“You’ve seen what has happened to Burton Albion in training at St George’s Park. They’ve got the facilities, they’ve made use of them, made use of the expertise, and look where they are.

“The potential for Newport is there for all to see, we just have to harness the facilities, harness the expertise and make sure the players use it to their advantage.”

Q. What have you been doing since you were last in football?

A. “Crying, sulking, and playing loads of golf, and getting really twitchy now that the football season has started and the games are there.

“It’s a horrible feeling when you want to be in the dugout and you want to be winning football matches and you’re not, and you’re waiting for your next opportunity. It’s just a horrible feeling.

“Even at 48 and 800 plus games you know very little compared to the big, wide world out there, so I always keep my eyes and ears open and try and learn a lot off the very best.

“I speak to a lot of people, watch a lot of what other people do and try and learn as much as I can because I want to be the best I can be.”

Q. What would you say is the Graham Westley style?

A. “It changes every day because every day you live and every day you learn.

“What I would have done 20 years ago I probably wouldn’t do today. What I would have done 10 years ago I probably wouldn’t do today.

“You fall over sometimes but I’ve certainly got a good ability to get back up, not to look backwards and dwell. I’ve got a good ability to learn and to progress and go forward, and I intend to keep doing that here.

“I’m sure I’ll make mistakes along the way but I’m sure the club can rely on me to be a strong individual who gets himself back up and fights very hard to succeed.”

Q. In terms of style on the pitch, what do you want to see from your team?

A. “I don’t think it pays to talk about my style. I think what I have to do is harness the players at the club and create a style that works for them and for this club.

“You have to take into account the home ground we are playing on because half your games are there and we need to make sure we can win there.

“The home record hasn’t been great. People who know me will know I’ve always had good home records and I fully intend to make sure ours is a place people don’t like coming and ours is a place where people come and expect to lose.

“That’s a really important part of any club, that they know how to make their home ground work, so you can expect that.

“Looking at the squad, I’m not going to be changing the squad around, we are together whether we like it or not, and I’m glad we are together.

“It reminds me very much of when I went into Rushden & Diamonds and I inherited a squad that was languishing but I thought from the outside was really talented, and I think there is some really good talent at this club too.

“It’s about finding a way of working with them. It’s not about me and my style, it’s about them and their style. It’s about the style they believe in and the style they believe can win matches.

“If I come in and asked them to do what they can’t do, or that doesn’t play to their strengths, then that’s not going to be good for the club.

“It’s about me adapting to them and helping them to become as good as they can be.”

Q. Does it concern you that the home ground is also used for rugby?

A. “No. It is as it is. If the pitch is difficult in certain areas then it’s up to us to adapt to that. It’s up to us to play a brand of football that succeeds in those conditions.

“We all know the best way of winning matches is to own the ball, to go forward, shoot as often as possible and score goals. We have to learn how to do that on the pitch.

“I expect our team to be fit enough to produce really good possession football. I expect the possession football to be of really good quality creating many overloads.

“I expect the overloads to result in purposeful play. I want crosses. I want shots. Those are the things that will be demanded of our team and we’ll work out the best way of playing at home to achieve that.”

Q. What will be your first message to the players?

A. “Make sure you smile every day when you come to work because I think it’s really important you can enjoy yourself, and if you’re enjoying yourself you’ve got a really good chance of being at your best.

“What’s gone has gone, we can’t change that. What’s in front of us is a great opportunity.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do but if you think about it, the side that’s in seventh place right now has got a goal difference that is five better than ours.

“So if we’d scored three more and conceded two less we’d have the same goal difference as the seventh placed side. It’s about fine margins is football and I’m sure we can find a way of producing three more goals and conceding two less with a little bit of hard work.”

Q. Can you assure Newport fans you are here for the long haul, even when you accomplish your goal?

A. “The board asked me at interview, what is your expectation in terms of your commitment to this club?

“I said I don’t want Preston North End to be the biggest job I ever have in football. I want to make sure I go and get something bigger than Preston and that I do better with it than I did with Preston, that’s my objective.

“If I’m going to get that sort of opportunity then the next job I do, and that’s now this job, has to be a sensational one.

“I have to grab hold of a club and work with it to produce an incredible performance. If I produce an incredible performance a door may open for me, but there’s going to be a lot of hard work in front of me for me to be able to produce the type of opportunity for myself that I want.

“And I’m sure if that opportunity comes along it will be because I’ve done really well as this club’s manager, and I’m sure everybody at this club will then say thanks very much and good luck.”

Q. From watching the team a few times this season, what have you seen that needs to be improved?

A. “Trust me, every Saturday that I watch our team and every Tuesday that I watch our team they will walk back into the dressing room and I will give them a lot of good, positive, constructive feedback about what they’ve done – and I’ll nail them as well.

“There won’t be a day where I don’t find something that they can do better.

“The whole purpose of being there as a coach is to make sure your players get better and better and better so they can fulfil their potential.

“There is lots of individual and collective feedback that I could give.

“Let’s be frank, the club has had a hell of a tough start to the season. They’ve only played four home games in the league, they’ve had six away games, and six tough away games, and I’m certainly glad that some of them are out the way.

“It’s a right Brucie bonus to be walking in with some of those fixtures gone.

“They’ve been edged out in a few games here and there. A little bit tighter defensively, a little bit more fluid going forward and we’ll be winning football matches.”

Q. Did you speak to anyone to find out about the club before agreeing to come?

A. “I was fortunate in that I knew several players who have played here before.

“As an out of work manager, people are always on the phone to you saying your name is linked and asking what are you thinking of doing.

“There are always people among those who call you who can give you a lot of clues about the club and the way it works.

“I tend to judge by what I see for myself, not what I hear.

“I had a good call with Malcolm (Temple) who said the club would like to speak to me.

“He gave me a little bit of an insight into what the club was trying to achieve.

“I came down and met the board, spent a lot of time talking to Michael Flynn who talked very positively and very constructively about the club, then with Gavin (Foxall), but with the whole board.

“My interview was a very constructive affair where I learned that there were a lot of very good people with a lot of care, pride and passion for the club, and it just appealed to me.

“I liked the fact that everybody was so hands on, the facilities were there, that everybody wanted to help, and the passion of the fans shone through in everything that was being spoken about.

“The board are there as a trust board, to harness the fans, to be there for the fans and to be with the fans.

“It’s a very collective entity here and that suits me a lot, I like the feel of it. I’ve been really impressed by their togetherness and their sense of desire and ambition for the future.

“I can’t wait to start making my contribution to it and I hope there can be some serious success here.”