MICKEY Demetriou would like remain a Newport County AFC player if the club made him the right offer.

The defender scored a fourth goal in seven games on Saturday as the Exiles avoided relegation in the most dramatic fashion at Rodney Parade.

Demetriou’s first-half penalty gave his side the lead against Notts County, before Mark O’Brien struck an 89th-minute winner after Jorge Grant had equalised.

Newport’s 2-1 win kept them up and sent Hartlepool United down to the National League.

Demetriou admitted the prospect of dropping out of the Football League nearly brought him to tears during the game.

But with Newport securing League Two football for another season, the 27-year-old now has to consider where he will be playing.

He joined the Exiles in January on a deal that ran to the end of the campaign, and when asked if staying in South Wales interested him, Demetriou indicated it would.

“If the gaffer (caretaker boss Mike Flynn) gets the job we’ll be able to talk, but I’ve not thought about my next club, whether it’s going to be here or somewhere else,” he said.

“I couldn’t afford to take my head off the game, it was too important to concentrate on finishing off this season well.

“Thankfully we have done and we’re still in League Two.

“If we sit down and talk and it’s right for me then I’ve got to think about my family as well because I’m travelling in and out of Newport, and I’ve got a baby due in August.

“I’m sure if the contract is right for me then I haven’t got a problem signing it.”

Demetriou’s performances in April earned him the League Two player of the month award and saw his stock rise considerably.

His match-winning goals were crucial in the Exiles’ great escape, and his calmly struck spot-kick on Saturday settled any early nerves among the hosts.

Being in a position to save themselves didn’t look possible back in early March when a 4-0 home defeat by Leyton Orient – Graham Westley’s last game in charge – looked like proving fatal.

“We were 11 points adrift and, if I’m being honest, I had doubts,” he added. “I think everyone probably had doubts.

“A lot of people wrote us off, and probably even some of the fans did, because that was one of the biggest games of the season at that point.

“To lose the way we did in the manner that we did disheartened the fans a little bit, it certainly did to us, but we stuck at it, we dug deep and look where we are now.”

But Demetriou revealed that his emotions were running very high when County were staring down the barrel at relegation late in Saturday’s match.

“I nearly had tears in my eyes,” he said. “I spent three years in the Conference and didn’t want to go back.

“To find out Hartlepool were winning 2-1, I was devastated.”