NEWPORT County AFC midfielder Ben Tozer insists the whole squad still believes they can win promotion this season.

Successive League Two defeats for the first time under manager Michael Flynn have seen County slip to 11th in the table.

The Exiles are five points below the play-off places having played a game more than most of their promotion rivals.

But after Wednesday’s FA Cup fourth round replay against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley, Tozer and teammates have 15 matches still to play in the league and nine of those are at Rodney Parade.

Speaking to iFollow Exiles after Saturday’s defeat at Colchester United, the 27-year-old said: ““It’s been a bit of a reality check this week, I have to say.

“But if you don’t think you can do it when you’re five points off with however many to play then there’s no point in being here, to be honest with you.

“I believe, everyone in the squad believes we can do it, it’s harder to believe it when you have a defeat like today but ultimately we believe we can do it.”

South Wales Argus:

The 2-0 defeat at Colchester followed a 3-1 reverse at Lincoln City last week and Tozer admitted that the 1-1 home draw with Spurs in the cup on January 27 took a lot out of the players.

“We’ve had a tough week and I don’t think you can take that away from us,” he added.

“We had a game last Saturday which took everything out of us mentally, physically and emotionally.

“Then we’ve had a long tough trip to Lincoln. You can’t beat around the bush with that one; it is a tough place to go.

“It wasn’t good enough obviously because we lost the game at the end of the day.

“And then another long journey today so we’re not making any excuses, but physically it’s been a hard week like I say.

“At the end of the day, we have to forget about it now, Wednesday is the next game on the horizon and we just have to regroup and go again.

“We have to recover and make sure we’re in the best possible shape to go again which is what we do every game.”