Josh Sheehan confident Newport County can challenge again

Sheehan has played a key part in helping County to keep three successive clean sheets in League Two.

The former Swansea City man is playing a more defensive role than his number 10 shirt suggests and he’s enjoying his new responsibilities.

Speaking after Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Walsall, Sheehan told iFollowExiles: “An away point is always a good one.

“That’s what we start the game thinking, which makes us work hard for each other and guarantees that each game – especially away – we dig in deep and make sure we have a compact defence.

“We play for everything we can and it’s another good point away from home.

“It shows the character of the team and the club basically, we never give in and it shows with the performances we put in.

“We fight for each other and you can see that when someone makes a good challenge or something, everyone gets around and gives a pat on the back.”

On his own display, the 24-year-old said: “I was happy with my performance and I thought I did well defensively.

“On the ball, I obviously wanted to do that more, but I don’t think we did that much as a team.

“I want to play every minute of every game and I feel like I’ve started well so far.

“But I want to play even better; I don’t feel like I’ve reached my potential in games so far and hopefully there’ll be more to come.”

County have won one and drawn three of their four league games so far, with the two matches on the road ending goalless.

“Our away form so far is a step in the right direction,” said Sheehan.

“You start with not wanting to concede goals, we haven’t scored ourselves away from home in the league, but we know that’ll come with the quality we’ve got.

“You always start with the defence and that’s obviously working with the two clean sheets.

“We’re in a good run of form as a team and we just want to keep on winning games. Hopefully, we can get a few more players back from injury to improve the team and the squad.

“We’ve got a good squad, there are several boys itching to get on the pitch, and hopefully we can show that over the coming weeks and matches.”

Michael Flynn’s men host new league leaders Crewe Alexandra at Rodney Parade on Saturday and Sheehan is confident they can keep their unbeaten run going.

“We’re itching for the next game, we can’t wait really, and we want to win every game,” he said.

“We go into every game with no fear because even if we’re playing Premier League teams like we have recently, we never go in with fear.

“We feel like every game at home, we’ll back ourselves, no one likes to come to Newport and we like showing why they don’t.

“We want as many fans as we can because it improves our levels as you could see with the results in the last couple of years.

“Home form is absolutely crucial in this league; it’s a huge stepping stone and if we add solid home form to a couple of good results away, we’ll have a good season. "We’re a good squad and we can compete with anyone.