WE’RE in danger of running out of superlatives to describe the rapid progress being made by Newport County AFC since Graham Westley took charge.

The Exiles are finally off the bottom of League Two and the way they’re playing at present they look capable of beating anyone in the division.

They are a team and club transformed since Westley’s arrival.

People, particularly Preston North End fans, laughed when he was appointed and predicted that he would alienate the players and take the club back to the Conference.

People laughed when he began talking about a push for the play-offs, or at least hinted that he was targeting the top-seven.

But after Saturday’s 3-0 humbling of Notts County at Meadow Lane – a match the Exiles could have by five or six – few would argue that a promotion push is out of the question.

Yes they are still 22nd in the table and defeat at home to Wycombe Wanderers tonight, or another postponement, could see them back in the bottom two.

But Westley’s men are currently just three points off 15th place with a game in hand.

If they win that game in hand – at home to his old team Stevenage on December 6 – they would be just four points off the play-off places as the table stands today.

A couple of injuries to key men like Joe Day, Darren Jones, Scot Bennett, Ben Tozer or loan stars Josh Sheehan and Rhys Healey would pose a real challenge.

But the current run of seven games without a defeat and four successive wins has been achieved largely without nine men.

Paul Bignot is suspended and Lenell John-Lewis, Jamie Turley, Joss Labadie, Kyle Cameron, Mark Randall, Jon Parkin, Reece Grego-Cox and Marlon Jackson are all currently injured.

I raised the concern last week that Westley’s success could lead to a bigger club luring him away to solve their own crisis and I was criticised by some for scare-mongering.

Now some fans have questioned whether the club will be able to keep hold of Sheehan and Healey once their initial loan periods end in January.

But Westley seems to genuinely be enjoying life in Newport at present – unlike John Sheridan last season.

And the same goes for Sheehan and Healey, who are unlikely to be able to force their way into the first team picture at their parent clubs Swansea City and Cardiff City any time soon.

How could anyone not be enjoying the way that County are playing at the moment and the results they are achieving?

Anyone who watched their last three league matches will know that this team is currently a long way from the negative long-ball tag that has been attached to Westley’s sides in the past.

It was a joy to watch Sheehan, Healey, Jack Jebb and Sean Rigg ripping through the Notts defence on Saturday.

And at the other end the defence looks rock solid compared to the sloppy performances we saw earlier in the season.

So how has Westley achieved this transformation? And with the players – Jebb and Josh O’Hanlon aside – who were brought to the club by previous manager Warren Feeney but so obviously underachieving.

Former County striker Craig Reid, who played under Westley at Stevenage, predicted that his old boss would be the perfect fit when I spoke to him a few days before the appointment was confirmed.

“I have a huge amount of respect for Graham and I think he’d be the perfect person for Newport in the position they’re in at the moment,” said Reid.

“The way he goes about things means you will get a hard-working, strong, disciplined side.

“He leaves no stone unturned in his preparation for the opposition.

“He knows that league and the league above having got promoted with Stevenage and his experience and knowledge of that level would be ideal.

“If the team buys into how he likes things done then they will be successful.”

It looks like prophetic stuff from Reidy and that last sentence seems to be the key.

At the moment the players are all buying into his methods and reaping the benefits – something that clearly didn’t happen for Westley at Preston.

And a little aside from the Exiles boss during yesterday’s pre-match press conference sheds some light on what it’s like inside the dressing room under Westley.

“Buts [Dan Butler] rang me up on Friday morning and told me he wasn’t well and he wouldn’t be able to make it,” said the manager.

“I told him that he would be well and he would be able to make it.

“And he played very well at the weekend.

“It’s a question of making sure the mentality is always open-minded.

“You don’t write yourself off or allow the physio to write anyone off because none of us can say whether and injury is a week, 10 days or two weeks.

“AP McCoy rode with a broken ankle – people have to do stuff sometimes that hurts a bit in order to succeed.

“We need that mentality, we need resilient players who can fight against the odds at times.

“I won a play-off final with a player who needed an operation but he managed to take enough painkillers to get him through the game and that’s what it takes at times.”

Those are words to send the likes of Raymond Verheijen into a Twitter meltdown but League Two football is a world away from the top of the game and Westley’s methods are currently working a treat. Long may it continue.