NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Westley says some of his players have let the distraction of a potential FA Cup clash with Liverpool affect them.

Monday’s third round draw provided both County and Plymouth Argyle – who meet in a replay on December 21 – with the carrot of a trip to Anfield.

And Westley admits that the news did cause some of his players to lose focus ahead of Tuesday’s League Two clash with Stevenage.

The Exiles lost that match 2-0 to remain bottom of the table and they are desperate to avoid a fourth straight league defeat at home to Morecambe on Saturday.

Westley says they have to put thoughts of the replay and the potential Liverpool clash to the back of their minds and concentrate on climbing out of the bottom two.

“I tried not to make the draw a distraction but we’ve got a lot of young players so you don’t know how distracted people were by the draw,” said the manager.

“Players do get distracted by things and maybe the distraction factor meant one or two lost their focus.

“Certainly we didn’t look focused the other night on winning the football match. “I think the proximity of the draw to the game the other night made life difficult and I think it may have distracted one or two.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to work with the boys after the draw was made and to get them to understand the way things work,” he added.

“Football is a funny game; if you look after the game of football, it looks after you.

“And to get the best out of yourselves you’ve got to concentrate on the next opponent and the next game.

“Even when there’s something big in front of you, you’ve got to realise that three points on Saturday is big and you’ve got to make that your focus.

“If anybody wants to be involved in any game it needs to start with three points on Saturday.

“Those three points could get us out of the bottom two and that would be a nice step to take forward.

“It’s one we need to take sooner or later and it’s one that we’re determined to take sooner rather than later because the sooner we get ourselves moving forward the sooner we can start looking upwards and start chasing teams ahead of us.”

Meanwhile, Westley says the fact that the FA Cup replay has been moved to December 21 for live TV coverage is a big bonus as it means Sean Rigg will be back from suspension.

“It’s awesome for us,” he said. “It’s brilliant for us. We get a chance to get some big players fit and ready and we get Riggy back.

“It’s going to be a massive game when it comes round and I think getting the extra time to prepare for it can only be to our advantage.

“We’re a small club and we haven’t got the resources to turn a big game round quickly so having a bit of time on our hands to prepare for it is everything you could want.

“It’s perfect from our point of view.”