NEW signing Danny Crow wants to help turn Newport County from relegation strugglers into Conference high-flyers.

The 26-year-old striker is used to battling for promotion after two years at Luton Town and he insists he hasn’t come to Newport to languish at the bottom of the Blue Square Bet Premier.

Crow was hot property after being released by the Hatters last month and he says that the ambition of Exiles boss Justin Edinburgh was what convinced him to sign for County.

“The main reason I came to Newport was because of Justin Edinburgh,” said the ex-Peterborough and Cambridge United man.

“He’s ambitious and I’m ambitious and I want to be part of what he’s building at this club.

“There were other clubs interested but as soon as I’d met Justin the decision was made.

“He showed me round the new ground, which looks fantastic, and he was really eager to get it sorted so I was happy to get my future settled quickly.

“It will be different from Luton,” he added. “People won’t expect us to be up there but I believe with the players we’ve signed we will be challenging.”

Although he only managed 17 goals in two years at Kenilworth Road, Crow scored 23 times for Cambridge in the 2009-10 season and he believes he can recapture that form at Rodney Parade.

“It was hard at Luton because if you didn’t score for two or three games you were dropped,” he explained.

“Obviously you’re never guaranteed a start but hopefully I can show the Newport fans what I can do and they’ll forgive me for scoring against them last season.

“If I’m not scoring I like to think I’m playing my part in getting other people goals. But at Cambridge and Peterborough I was just the goalscorer.

“That’s something I want to get back into my game. I want to be in the box all the time, making things happen.

“When I met Justin he said the defensive record was play-off material, but the goalscoring was relegation,” he added.

“I’m not saying I’m going to turn it around on my own, but he’s signing a few players and hopefully I’m going to get those goals.”

Crow will team up with fellow County strikers Jefferson Louis, Jake Harris and Ryan Charles as pre-season training begins on Monday, with the first friendly at Undy Athletic on Friday, July 6.

He will not be reunited with Craig McAllister, however, after the front man completed his move to Blue Square Bet South outfit Eastleigh.

The Argus revealed earlier this week that the Scot was in talks with the Spitfires and the south coast club confirmed the deal yesterday morning.

Speaking to the club website McAllister said: “Whilst not for a second do I think this is the end of my career, I always said I wanted to come back to Eastleigh one day. I still own a house in the area and my parents are just up the road in Midanbury.

“It’s true Eastleigh tried to sign me last year before I went to Luton and the manager made a good impression and was really keen to get me, which is nice. Listening to him and the owner it is clear they want to push the club on with continued investment so it’s an exciting place to be around.”

He continued: “In hindsight I probably should have stayed with Crawley (last summer) but the Newport offer was for two years giving me a bit of financial security and we were settling in the south west with a baby.

“Everyone was great to me at Newport but it just didn’t work out and was definitely a low point in my career. What was crazy was twelve months before I was playing at Old Trafford in front of seventy odd thousands, but that’s football.”