GRAHAM Westley believes there is not “massive amounts” of work to do for Newport County AFC to turn their season around.

The Exiles’ new boss lost his first game in charge of the Welsh club at Yeovil Town on Saturday but reckons the team isn’t far away from finding a winning formula.

A late Dan Butler own goal saw County miss out on what would have been a deserved point in a scrappy encounter at Huish Park.

And even though the visitors created few clear-cut chances their manager was upbeat about his side’s display.

“The appetite was obvious,” he said. “The lads showed a good understanding of the work we’ve done this week.

“We changed the system and there were no excuses, they went about their work in a very positive and constructive way.

“When you look back at the game, possession was pretty equal, 13 to 11 attempts at goal, and we were in a game away from home against a side that has been in decent enough form.

“I think we showed a lot of desire and determination to become the side that we will become.”

He went on to add: “The job is to make the players that are here better and to create a team environment that means we can produce a level of performance that gets winning results.

“We showed that we’re not far away. We didn’t quite crack it but in the second half we looked like the team probably most likely.

“I thought the players weathered the home storm in the first half, built on that in the second half, looked to be getting in control of the game and then a defensive error has cost us, but I go away very positive.”

Speaking about what needs to be done to get County away from the relegation zone, he said: “When you walk into a job and the club is rooted at the bottom you often think there is tonnes of work to do, and there is work to do, it’s obvious, but there is not massive amounts of work.

“We’ve lost at the margins and turning those margins in our favour is something we’ll certainly do.”

Westley, whose men host leaders Plymouth next, confirmed that the likes of Mark Randall and Reece Grego-Cox had missed Saturday’s game through injury.

“There were one or two lads who had been carrying knocks,” he said. “One or two of those knocks kept them out of selection.

“We’re obviously going to be pushing to get the lads into a different space, and when you’re pushing a squad sometimes you pick up a niggle or two.

“Most of the lads will probably be back in contention in the next week or 10 days.”