FRANK Nouble is convinced he can become a regular scorer again after finally ending his 12-game goal drought on Saturday.

The striker broke the deadlock against Walsall with a deflected shot as Newport County AFC progressed to the second round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win.

It was Nouble’s first goal since his superb hat-trick against Chesterfield on August 26 and it was significant for another reason.

The 18th-minute strike was the 26-year-old’s sixth goal of the season and that is the best tally of his 13-club career.

“I’m happy to get a goal,” said a relieved Nouble. “That goal-drought was all I kept hearing about and it was playing on my mind a little bit, I can’t lie.

“It was a lucky deflection and thankfully it went in for me but if you don’t shoot then you don’t score and I probably haven’t been shooting enough in the games I haven’t scored in.”

Nouble is enjoying his time in Newport and praised the impact that manager Michael Flynn has had on him.

“Everywhere I’ve been I’ve not lasted at the club for that long – for different reasons,” he said.

“I’m just trying to find a home somewhere and settle down. I’ve done that so far and we’re doing well.

“If I play a lot of games we’re going to win a lot of games.

“That’s the truth – wherever I’ve been if I’ve played we’ve won most games.

“I’m happy that that’s happening here and the manager has given me all the confidence in the world to just go out and express myself.”

Nouble, who has played most of his matches with Padraig Amond, started up front with Shawn McCoulsky on Saturday and the duo both found the net against Walsall.

“Shawn has been brilliant,” he said. “He’s come on and scored a lot of goals. He’s top scorer now and he keeps talking about that in training!

“He scored again and I’m buzzing for him.

“He’s different to Podge [Amond] – he’s got a lot of pace and I think we utilised that quite well.

“I tried to stay in the middle a bit more,” he added. “I kept getting dragged out wide a lot in recent game and maybe that was my fault.

“I’m happy to be more in the middle and Shawn can obviously help me by occupying other defenders with his pace.”

Nouble was also delighted that the team bounced back from a disappointing run of two defeats and a draw in League Two.

“We wanted to get back to winning ways after a few frustrating games against Notts County and Colchester and hopefully we take that into the games against Cheltenham [tonight] and Port Vale [Friday] this week,” said the Londoner.

“When a team comes down from a higher league you want to prove that you are as good as them, if not better.

“I think we showed that we can compete with a League One team easily and I think if they were in our league they’d struggle.”

County will host Cambridge United in the FA Cup second round next month but Nouble is already eyeing up a big name in the next round.

“We want Man United in the third round,” he said. “We want Mourinho at Old Trafford.

“I played there in the Youth Cup and scored there so hopefully I can score there again but we have to focus on the next round first.”