NEWPORT County AFC may be four points clear at the top of the table but midfield ace Max Porter has a warning for the rest of the Conference – we will get even better, writes Andrew Penman.

The 1-1 draw at Macclesfield Town saw County stretch their lead over Wrexham and Forest Green in the Blue Square Bet Premier and Porter is convinced there is more to come from Justin Edinburgh’s team.

The 25-year-old has been ever-present in the Exiles midfield as they have collected 33 points from their first 15 games but he believes that they have yet to reach the peak of their powers.

“It’s exciting for us as players and we’re enjoying playing together,” said Porter.

“I think we’re going to get better as well because we’re still a relatively new side.

“We’ll get stronger as the season goes on so the more games we win now the better.

“We could have crumbled when Macclesfield scored but we stayed strong and fought to the end and it’s a point gained.”

On his own form, he added: “I just keep trying to do well. We’ve got a lot of players who do a good job for the team and you know that if you keep getting picked you must be doing something right.”

As the league takes a break, Porter is now looking ahead to the FA Cup tie at Yate Town on Saturday.

“We want to stay top, that’s our aim, but we’ve got a big cup game now,” he said. “We’re not taking that lightly and we just want to keep winning football matches because that breeds confidence.

“The FA Cup is something to enjoy for us. We’re going there with a great incentive to get a good result and hopefully get a great draw in the next round.

“I got to the fourth round with Barnet one year. We kept thinking ‘we’ll get a good draw this time’ and we ended up losing to Bristol Rovers. Then they got Fulham so that was gutting, but we know we need to be at our best against Yate.”

The former England C captain could retain the armband he took from David Pipe at Macclesfield if the right-back fails to recover from the groin strain that forced him off at Moss Rose.

Porter said: “There have been a few times where Pipey’s gone off and I’ve been given the armband and that is a really big honour for me but I hope he’s fit for next week.”

l County stars Ben Swallow, Andrew Hughes and Lee Evans could all feature for the Wales C side against Turkey at Port Talbot tonight (kick-off 6pm).