Martin Allen convinced Graham Westley will keep Exiles up

County are bottom of League Two and six points from safety with one game in hand after Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with the Bees at Rodney Parade.

The Exiles are without a win in 13 games in all competitions and they’ve picked up just one point from a possible nine in Graham Westley’s first three games in charge.

But Allen is convinced that Westley will keep the club in the Football League.

“They have got enough. Old [Jon] Parkin will come back in and help them as well and they’ve got a lot of legs, a lot of energy and a lot of pace.

“They’ll have a lot of spirit with Graham and they’re very well organised at set-plays.

“And with Parkin up the middle I think he will give them that extra guidance.

“There is still such a long way to go and they’ve had a few injuries,” he added.

“And when your best players are injured you don’t usually win.

“Now they’re getting players back and they’ve signed some good loan players so they will win games, for sure.”

Allen says Tuesday’s match was exactly what he expected from his trip to Newport.

“We had them watched on Saturday against Plymouth and one of my good friends told me that they played very well,” he said.

“He told me to expect a hard game. It’s a difficult place to come and play and the new manager has got them flying.

“You’ve got to say that from the first minute the crowd were right behind their team and the manager was fully animated on the side, urging his players on.

“I thought they put a real tremendous fire and effort into the game but in the second half we would come into it and that’s what happened. It was probably a fair result.”

County salvaged a point with Sean Rigg’s 89th-minute penalty after two late goals from John Akinde had put the visitors ahead following Ben Tozer’s first half header.

“I was disappointed [not to win],” said Allen. “I’m not sure if it was a penalty or not – I was too far away from it to make a judgement but we have to respect the referee’s decision.”