Sheehan back for County’s crucial period
LAST weekend he was facing Mexico on the international stage, but life will get back to normal for Josh Sheehan when he heads to Barrow today (3pm) to try to keep Newport County on track for promotion from League 2.
The Wales midfield ace is going to be crucial in the 10-game countdown to the end of the season as Michael Flynn’s men attempt to climb back into the third tier of English football for the first time in 34 years.
“We all know what we need to do, but it needs to be done on the pitch. There can be no excuses – we are facing 10 cup finals,” said Sheehan.
“We’ve got to go out there and leave everything out on the pitch. We’ve just got to go out and win games.
“We will all be bitterly disappointed if we miss our target. We need to be more ruthless in both boxes and find a way to kill off teams.”
Having led the table into the New Year, County now find themselves in the last play-off spot and having to scrap to stay in the promotion hunt.
How different things might have been had the conditions at Rodney Parade not deteriorated so badly in December and four key players, Brandon Cooper, Scott Twine, Jamie Proctor and Jamie Devitt, not had to go back to their parent clubs in January after successful loan spells
Devitt could be in the Barrow side as County face a long trek north to face a side fighting against relegation. It has all the hallmarks of a classic banana-skin fixture at a time when Newport need to pick up every win they can get.
“We have an unbelievable opportunity to go up in what has been a very good season so far. If the players really believe in themselves they can go up,” said Flynn.
“We’ve got 14 players in the squad who have achieved promotions before and that experience should help us.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back into it, even though it is going to be another difficult month with eight games in 29 days.
“We just need to keep going to help us get what we think we deserve, but we need to win games. Draws are neither here, nor there for us at this stage.”
After Barrow comes Bolton on Easter Monday. They will be the first team to play back at Rodney Parade after the surface was given a chance to recover.