Tuesday’s defeat to Lincoln City will not become a defining moment in the season for Newport County AFC, according to Exiles defender Dan Butler.
The Imps took the lead on 14 minutes after Matt Rhead was given too much time to pick his spot following good running work from Michael Bostwick and Matt Green.
Padraig Amond kept his rich vein of goal scoring form alive by netting the equaliser for County on 32 minutes.
The Irishman calmly dispatched the opportunity when it arrived, passing home the rebound after home goalkeeper Paul Harman could only parry Matty Dolan’s long-range effort into Amond’s path.
But Lincoln ensured that County wouldn’t be ascending back into the play-off positions on the night by scoring twice in the second-half to take the game away from the Exiles.
Rhead re-paid the favour to Green by setting him up for his volleyed effort, before substitute Ollie Palmer found a third just 30 seconds after coming on with an intuitive effort from just outside the area.
The result meant County dropped to 10th in the League 2 table following the result, suffering their first defeat in nine matches in the process.
Post-match, Butler spoke exclusively to #iFollowExiles about the defeat at Sincil Bank, missing the chance to go back into the play-off positions and how he expects the squad to react against Colchester on Saturday.
On the defeat to Lincoln City…
“We really didn’t start great.
“We knew it was going to be tough coming here, they’ve got a good fan base and the fans really do get on top of you.
“It’s quite similar in many ways to when we’re at Rodney Parade but we didn’t start great.
“Then we managed to get back into the game, the second part of the first-half I thought we dominated the game and probably could have scored a couple of goals.
“We didn’t and then when we came out in the second-half, defensively we weren’t good enough.
“We’ve shown in the past that we are a lot better than that, especially on Saturday, and they punished us and scored twice.
“We did create chances, certainly in the last ten minutes, we didn’t give up but obviously we didn’t take those chances and we’ve lost, so we’re disappointed.”
On the goals conceded at Sincil Bank…
“It speaks for itself really on the first goal I feel – he’s known in this league for being good in the air.
“And like I said, we’re disappointed with how we defended as a group.
“It wasn’t just him scoring, the build up to the goal wasn’t good enough from us.
“We’re professionals so we will go through them because there is always a way of stopping a goal.
“Whether it was me or someone else in the back four, there are always ways to stop goals, so we’ll try and make sure that it doesn’t happen again on Saturday.
“It’s not going to define our season losing here, it’s a tough place to come and not many teams come here and pick up points.
“We felt like we should have got something out of the game tonight and I think we could have. We never get too high, never get too low so it’s onto Saturday now and hopefully get three points.”
On Padraig Amond’s goal…
“It was a really good finish.
“We always work on that, to follow it in especially when someone shoots from distance.
“He did well, Podge is playing well at the moment but so is everyone in the team, so it is disappointing tonight.
“We’re not going to let ourselves get too high when we win and play well, but at the same time we won’t get too low when we lose so we just go to Saturday now.”
On missing the chance to get back into the play-off positions…
“I haven’t really seen the results tonight to be honest with you.
“But 100% we’re confident we can do it this season.
“It’s one game, we’re not going to suddenly start saying that our season is over because we’ve lost one game.
“We’ve done really well over the past month so it’s just about going into Saturday and I’m confident we can get the three points.”
On facing another tough trip to Colchester on Saturday…
“I think we will put it right against Colchester.
“We’ve done that all season [put things right after a defeat] so I’m confident that we can do it again, all the boys are really.
“To be fair, there’s not really anything different with them compared to any other team in League 2, maybe barring Luton who at home are a very good footballing team.
“I think every team is quite similar – we know that it’s going to be a battle and we know that we will have to work hard.
“We need to stick to our game plan which we 95% of the time do and I’m confident that we can go there and get three points.
“We’ve proven already that we won’t become distracted by a big game.
“We weren’t fazed in the build-up to the first Tottenham game, like I said our form was very good in the league and we beat Leeds.
“Then we went on to win a couple more games after that so today was our first loss in nine, and I don’t think the Tottenham game will faze anyone.”