LEE Minshull admits he had no cause for complaint after being dropped for County’s Capital One Cup clash at Reading, writes Michael Pearlman.

The midfielder, nicknamed The Tank, started in Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to Wycombe Wanderers, but was only introduced as a late substitute as County were beaten 3-1 at the Madejski Stadium against a full strength Royals.

Both Minshull and Argus columnist Mike Flynn were left out at Reading and Minshull felt a reaction to the Wycombe result was to be expected from boss Justin Edinburgh.

“The gaffer changed things around, some of his changes were enforced, some weren’t, but I thought the lads responded really well with an excellent performance,” he said.

“When I came on I felt we’d score, but unfortunately they were 2-0 up at that stage.

“I think we always expected changes to our team, there probably would’ve been even if we’d won against Wycombe... but I have no sour grapes, the lads did well and we just want to kick on for Saturday. The team is always the most important thing.”

Minshull admits County feel they owe Morecambe some revenge after two controversial clashes last year, both revolving around Newport loanee Tom Naylor.

“It was good to test ourselves against such a strong team, we’ve done ourselves a lot of good with our performance, we started the game well, we were more like ourselves and against much better opposition,” he said.

“We had a bad time against Morecambe last year and feel like we owe them one, there was controversy in both games last season, we were in control in the home game, we had a bad penalty in the away game, but the most important thing is to get points on the board sooner rather than later.”

Minshull feels Newport’s task this season is harder because they are no longer the unknown quantity of the division.

“We’ve improved a lot, but so have the other teams, we all start with optimism but we aren’t unknown anymore, we aren’t on the high of a promotion, it’s a different test for us completely.”