NEWPORT County AFC striker Jon Parkin was quick to downplay his headline-grabbing display against Cheltenham Town, insisting afterwards the team is always the number one priority for him.

Parkin took his tally to three for the season on Saturday as he netted a brace of equalisers to help the Exiles to a point in their 2-2 draw with their Sky Bet League Two rivals.

The 34-year-old was happy to be among the goals but knows County have to tighten up at the back if they are to start climbing the table.

However, the former Cardiff City forward was keen to make the point that keeping clean sheets should be a collective effort, not just the responsibility of the defence.

“It’s not about me, it’s about getting three points, and we felt as though we let two points slip on Saturday,” he said. “We feel as though we should have been winning that game really.

“We need to stop putting ourselves in a position where we’re having to come from behind.

“The last three games we’ve gone 1-0 down and straight away it’s an uphill battle. Obviously once a team gets 1-0 up they are hanging on and it makes it harder.

“It’s good character to come back but we need to start scoring first.”

He added: “I don’t see any reason why we can’t challenge higher up the league. As I said, we’ve scored in every game so it looks as though scoring is not a problem, we just need to sort out conceding goals.

“And that’s not just the back four, that’s everybody as a team. We all score together and we all concede together, so we need to start tightening it up a bit.”

Parkin came to Rodney Parade this summer after spending the previous two seasons in non-League with Forest Green Rovers.

Some eyebrows were raised when boss Warren Feeney signed ‘The Beast’, but when asked if he has anything to prove, Parkin said: “I’m not really too bothered about that, I’m here to try and help the team get as many points as we can, and hopefully I can carry on doing that.

“We’ve scored in every game but we can’t be having to score three goals at home to win a game and get three points. We need to be better than that really.”

He continued: “It’s not about me scoring goals and proving people wrong. It’s about us getting higher up the league and hopefully trying to achieve something.”