JOE Day will take up his position between the sticks for Newport County AFC tonight knowing he may well have missed his side’s clash with Cheltenham Town but for a timely linesman’s flag.

The Exiles keeper appeared to handle the ball outside his area just 13 minutes into Saturday’s 0-0 draw at home against Wycombe Wanderers as the visitors looked to break the deadlock.

However, much to his relief, play was pulled back because Wycombe’s attacker had strayed offside – without the assistant referee’s flag it is likely Day would have seen red.

Speaking after the game, Day thought he was in trouble when he gathered the ball, but then “very happy when the referee blew the whistle” to give County a free-kick.

Day took full advantage of his lucky break, making a handful of vital saves to register a second clean sheet of the season in League Two.

While Day was keeping them out, County were unable to find the net at the other end, with a host of chances being spurned throughout the 90 minutes.

But the gloveman is confident things will change, starting tonight when Cheltenham visit Rodney Parade (kick-off 7.45pm).

“It can get frustrating but it’s not for a lack of trying, that’s for sure,” he said.

“We stayed positive and created chances, and I’m sure we will convert some tonight – the goals will come.”

Reflecting on Saturday further, he added: “For a 0-0 there were chances at both ends and we’ll take a point against a good Wycombe team.

“I don’t think we were at our best in the second half and we didn’t capitalise on our first-half dominance.

“But I’m happy to get the clean sheet and now we can go into tonight and hopefully win the game.”

And when asked why the Exiles couldn’t replicate their first-half performance after the break at the weekend, he said: “I’m not sure.

“I don’t think we were fully at it and that happens sometimes.

“We just slowed up. Possession wise, we couldn’t get out of our half as well as we might have liked because we weren’t retaining possession up top.

“We’ll look at it and go through the clips of the game and see where we can improve.”

Commenting on the start to the campaign in general, he continued: “It’s a great start to the season.

“A lot of new players have come in over the summer but we haven’t needed time to gel.

“We’ve been at it from the start, and we could have had a few more points as well.

“But we’ll take confidence from the start we’ve had and I’m sure we’ll have a good season.”