STAND-IN captain Mickey Demetriou believes Newport County AFC set the template for success on the road with Saturday’s hard-fought 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic.

Tyreeq Bakinson scored the only goal of the game at Boundary Park to earn County back-to-back away wins following a 2-1 victory at Port Vale and a fourth successive victory in League Two.

But it was the defence, marshalled by Demetriou, which secured the three points with a first clean sheet away from Rodney Parade since March.

The skipper told iFollow Exiles: “A victory like this means we can play either the pretty side of football or the ugly side of football.

“We had to dig deep because Oldham are a very good side.

“The clean sheet was massive because it got us the three points. If we concede then we draw the game so hopefully there will be many more to come this year, both away and home, and then we can build on that as a team.

“We know if we build from the back then we can create chances, our strikers are top quality, our midfield is top quality and we’ve shared the goals around this year.

“I’m still waiting to get one,” he added. “Hopefully it will come soon, but we know someone will score.

“We know someone in the team will take a chance that we get and if we keep getting clean sheets, we’ll take 1-0 every day of the week."

Demetriou is delighted that County are taking their chance when they come, with Bakinson the match-winner on Saturday and Scot Bennett and Dan Butler on target at Port Vale the week before.

““We always know we’re going to create some kind of opportunity and it’s about time we had that clinicality,” he said.

“So many times in the past, we’ve had those chances and we haven’t taken them.

“There were a few last season and maybe a couple already this year as well but it’s nice to say that we took our chance and it was a great finish.”

Demetriou is less enamoured with wearing the armband in the absence of regular captain Andrew Crofts.

“The team talks aren’t getting easier,” he admitted. “I messed up a little bit [at Oldham] and gave the lads something to laugh about.

“But I put the point I wanted to make across second time around and, look, if I mess up every team talk that I do but we go out and get three points then I’ll keep doing it.

“It’s nice to be captain at the moment but when Crofty comes back from injury I’ll relinquish that armband back over to him.

“I don’t need to say much in the team talk to be fair,” added the 28-year-old.

“We’ve got a great group, we know we’re good enough and the point I was trying to make in the team talk was about us proving why we’re second in the league.

“We did that with another three points away from home and hopefully we can have many more like that this year.”