PADRAIG Amond has warned his Newport County AFC teammates that they won’t get away with another sloppy start against Macclesfield Town tomorrow night.

County fought back from 2-0 down to beat Cambridge 4-2 at Rodney Parade on Saturday with Amond among the scorers.

The striker is proud of the resilience that the team showed against the U’s but he knows they cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes when they entertain bottom club Macclesfield on Tuesday.

Amond told iFollow Exiles: “It shows a lot of character for a team to go 2-0 down at home, on the back of losing 6-0 in the home league game before, and still come back and win the game 4-2.

“It’s a sign of the strength of this team and what we can do but, make no bones about it, Macclesfield Town will be a big test.

“They are due to win a game in League Two eventually so if we take them lightly we’ll get turned over, it’s as simple as that.

“We have to be really careful because anyone can beat anyone in this league, you can’t predict any of the results in this league.

“We have to make sure we are right at it,” he added. “We can’t start the way we did [on Saturday] because we won’t get away with it again.

“And we also need to finish the game as strong as we did. If we start and finish the game properly, we’ll have a right chance of getting a result.”

Amond paid tribute to manager Michael Flynn and his coaching staff for bringing on fellow front man Jamille Matt before half-time on Saturday and for delivering a rocket during the break.

“I’ve been involved in games like that before and I can tell you one goal can change everything,” said the Irishman.

“The penalty before half-time was crucial but credit has to go to the manager for the change he made.

"It’s a brave decision, something needed to be changed and we went for it. It worked out so credit to the management – Wayne Hatswell, the gaffer and Lennie Lawrence for having the courage to make that change.

“The gaffer had a go at us at half-time,” added the 30-year-old.

“I’ve never seen him like that before at half-time, and we’ve reacted to it but we shouldn’t need the gaffer to do that for us to change our performance.

“In the second-half, we played really, really well and were probably unplayable at times.

“It’s a fantastic victory for us and I think overall, it was fully deserved.”

 

After Mickey Demetriou pulled one back from the spot, Amond levelled five minutes after the break before Matt headed in his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign.

Amond is up to four after ending his nine-game goal drought and he won praise for his work-rate from the manager after the game.

“I’m obviously very pleased and thankfully it put us on our way to the victory,” said the former Hartlepool United front man.

“I’ll never change how hard I work. I’ll always do the exact same – I’m a very honest player and I’ll leave everything on the pitch.

"My aim is to score in every game, but my aim is also to contribute to the team. If the team wins the game and I don’t score, I’m happy. I’m not one of these players that will sulk if I don’t score and the team wins. For me there is always a bigger picture.”