NEWPORT County AFC number one Joe Day is certain that the arrival of fellow goalkeeper Nick Townsend can only be a good thing for him and for the club.

Day, who has been the main man between the sticks since joining County in 2014, saw back-up stopper and goalkeeping coach James Bittner leave the Exiles last month.

But he has been working with a new coach in training and that appointment is set to be announced by the club imminently.

And Townsend was signed on Friday, taking his place on the bench for Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Mansfield Town on the opening day of the League Two campaign.

Manager Michael Flynn has stated that the former Birmingham City and Barnsley gloveman is here to challenge for a starting spot and Townsend is clear that he’s not moved to Rodney Parade to sit on the bench.

Day welcomes the company in training and the challenge of keeping hold of his shirt.

“It’s nice to have a GK union,” said the 27-year-old. “I’m sure we’ll push each other and work well together.

“Pre-season has been a little bit lonely and there’s not been as much goalkeeping as I would have liked but the new goalkeeping coach is in now and Nick is in as well so we’ve had a couple of sessions and I can see it being a good union together.

“Competition can only be a good thing and I look forward to working with them both.”

Day wants the Exiles to put the Mansfield defeat to bed this coming Saturday with a win over Crewe Alexandra, who beat Morecambe 6-0 at the weekend.

“It’s obviously disappointing to lose 3-0 and we need to improve quickly,” he said.

“Games come quickly at the start of the season so we’re going to have to lick our wounds and prepare ourselves for next Saturday as quick as we can.

“Most goals at this level are preventable so we’ll have to look at them as a group and see what we can improve on to stop the goals.

“I thought we started well and looked comfortable but the first goal was a bit of a sucker punch and the second killed it off, really.

“It’s frustrating because I thought at times we played some nice stuff but maybe there was a bit of a naivety in there.”

Day insists, however, that there will be no panic amongst the players after one defeat.

“No one wins or loses the season in the first game so we won’t get too down and, likewise, if the result had been the other way around we wouldn’t have got too carried away,” he said.

“You want those first points on the board as early as possible but this defeat won’t set any panic off in the dressing room.

““The only thing we can do is bounce back and we’ll look through where we went wrong and look to improve it for the next game.

“Crewe will be full of confidence and hopefully they’ll underestimate us and we can get that win we want.”