NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Westley wants his players to create a turning point in their season by beating Barnet tonight.

County are bottom of League Two and seven points from safety.

But tonight’s rearranged home clash with the Bees is the first of two games in hand and Westley believes a win could change the momentum of their whole campaign.

Speaking after Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to league leaders Plymouth Argyle, he said: “Some of the habits you want from good pros aren’t there right now.

“We need to make sure the right habits – the fuelling and recovery habits – go into the players so that Tuesday night we can create a turning point and start to get our season going in the right direction.”

Westley knows his team need to start putting points on the board but he’s prepared for a fierce battle with Martin Allen’s men, who moved up to 20th with a 2-0 win at Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

“Every game is a game where you’re going to get tested,” said the Exiles boss.

“I watched Barnet play Leyton Orient a couple of weeks back and they’re a decent outfit.

“They run hard, they compete hard and Martin is a tough competitor – he makes sure his boys have got the basics nailed down.

“They’ve got a goalscorer in [John] Akinde and they are no mean challenge. It will be a contest.”

After watching his side match the table-toppers for much of the game on Saturday, with only 10 men after Joe Day’s dismissal, Westley is convinced that results will improve soon.

“The difference between the top and the bottom is just at the margins,” he said.

“We’re getting the margins wrong. We’re not winning enough tackles, we weren’t covering enough ground and we’re not showing enough belief and purpose in our game.

“We need to develop those things and with young players if you support them and you believe in them but you’re honest with them and you get the right characters and the right reaction you can help them to become winning players and not losing players.”

He added: “I went into League Two with my Stevenage lads many years ago now and they struggled at first to realise what was needed to win games at this level.

“They’d been Conference players and they’d been able to get away with things in the Conference but they got punished in the League.

“It took us until January. We were 18th in January and struggling.

“We couldn’t win football matches but finally with help, with guidance, with belief and work on the training ground we turned them into players who went on to win promotion that season.

“So it shows that anything’s possible. You just have to be focused, you have to be intelligent, you have to be honest and be constantly improving and that’s what we’ll do.”