NEWPORT County AFC remain bottom of League Two but manager Graham Westley is remaining positive after his side drew 1-1 with Morecambe at Rodney Parade.

Aaron Williams gave County the lead with a close range strike after 18 minutes but Michael Rose’s free-kick caught out Joe Day on 64 minutes to level.

Craig Reid and Ryan Bird went close for the hosts but both sides had to settle for a point.

It leaves the Exiles three points behind 23rd-place Leyton Orient and six points from safety with 14 games left to play.

But Westley believes it is a point gained without the suspended Darren Jones and the injured Sid Nelson, Scot Bennett, Sean Rigg and Joss Labadie.

“That is seven unbeaten in eight,” said the Exiles boss. “We had Jonah out, Sid Nelson out, we lost [Mark] O’Brien – so we lost our entire back three from recent weeks.

“We’ve got Riggy missing and Benno missing, both of whom you could argue would be in the side if fully fit, and Labadie’s out so there’s plenty of big players on the sidelines.

“We went into a game against a form side, got ourselves into the 1-0 lead that we had at half-time in the original fixture and defended really resolutely in the second half.

“We didn’t concede too many chances. We certainly had the better of the chances throughout the 90 minutes and, for me, we had two stonewall penalties turned down.

“The O’Brien header the referee said it hit his hand but it wasn’t intentional and the boys are really confused about how you can have your hand up above your head and be blocking a header and it not be intentional.

“And Tom Owen-Evans is fuming, he’s adamant that his calf was smashed and you can see the bruising on his calf from that challenge.

“So we should have had two penalties and we definitely had the better chances.

“Reidy had probably four or five chances to get our second goal so you look at it and you think, under the circumstances, the team has produced another solid and hard working display.”

He added: “They’re seven unbeaten in eight and these lads came together at a time when we’d lost eight straight games.

“They’re winning points and producing determined performances.

“We all know that we need to turn one point into three but I think that there’s a lot of credit that the players deserve for the work they’re putting in and the work they put in tonight.”