NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Westley says player-coach Michael Flynn will continue to play a big part in the club’s battle to beat the drop but youngster Kieran Parselle will have to wait for his chance.

Flynn came out of retirement at the age of 36 last month and has started the last three matches, filling in in central midfield and at centre-back and wearing the captain’s armband against Cambridge United and Morecambe.

With Darren Jones back from suspension and Scot Bennett, Sid Nelson and Joss Labadie close to fitness he could return to the bench at Mansfield Town tomorrow.

But Westley has been impressed with Flynn’s contributions on and off the pitch this season.

“He is Newport County and he’s a phenomenal credit to himself, to his family, to the profession and to the football club,” said the manager.

“He’s got his heart and his soul invested in this club and they ought to put his name alongside the badge on the front of the shirt because he’s given his everything to this football club.

“I think he wants to coach and manage the team as well as captain it at the weekend.

“And I think he’s also trying to get in the boardroom before the game to do the chairman’s duties!

“He’s ready to do whatever it takes, he’s a top lad.”

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Westley is also a big fan of academy graduate Parselle (above), who has been an unused substitute three times since he returned from a loan spell at Salisbury.

But he says the 20-year-old will have to bide his time.

“I’ve spoken highly of Kieran in terms of my initial impressions and since he came back,” said the Exiles boss.

“The other week I was hammering Kieran for losing a tackle to Tom Owen-Evans in training and saying that a centre-half who means business doesn’t lose a tackle to a midfield player in a training session.

“That might seem harsh but that’s the reality.

“Kieran is a player who is in development, he’s at a learning stage, he wants to listen, he takes my feedback constructively and well, I like his reaction, and he’s evolving all the time.

“At this moment in time you can see that I’m preferring experience to prospects but prospects have always got their place and potential will always have its day, so of course he’s in the mix.”

Westley admits it’s easier to give a youngster the chance to impress in attack than at the back but he would be prepared to play Parselle if he needed to.

“It’s easier to give Alex Samuel the freedom of the right hand side than to say go in there and gel and hold the team together [at centre-back] and do all the things you know you need to do to win at Mansfield,” he explained.

“You say that to Darren Jones or Mark O’Brien and they know the answers, even Sid Nelson has got good experience in the Championship and League One of how to go and do those jobs.

“Kieran is learning so of course you’d sooner use your experienced boys.

“But youngsters can always come in and step up to the plate and it wouldn’t faze me if I had to use him.”