MIDFIELDER Max Porter says it is business as usual at Newport County AFC and he doesn’t expect manager Justin Edinburgh to be going anywhere.

Porter claims the speculation linking Edinburgh with the vacant managerial post at League One Gillingham was not a factor in Saturday’s 4-0 humbling at Cambridge United.

And he insists that the focus is very much on getting back to winning ways at Northampton Town and putting the Exiles’ promotion push back on track.

“None of us have mentioned it and I wouldn’t use that as an excuse” he said of the Gills link. “I don’t really think that’s a factor.

“When you step over that line we’re not thinking about what he’s doing. We know we’ve got to perform because we’re going to get judged.

“All over the pitch we were, for once this season, second best. Fair play to Cambridge; they were first to every ball and they looked a little bit more hungry than us.

“I don’t know why that is because we’ve been on such a good run.

“Hopefully it’s just a blip and we look forward to putting it right next week.”

Porter does not believe that Edinburgh would be tempted away at this stage.

“I think that even if anything was going on he wouldn’t let it affect us,” said the 27-year-old.

“But he was honest and said there has been no contact and as players obviously we want the gaffer to stay. He’s built something here.

“From when I came here in the Conference he’s made a club that is now challenging at the top of League Two.

“We don’t want to lose him. He is a very good manager.

“He’s got to make sure that anything that does come up is right for him but I truly believe that he’ll be looking at it and thinking this is a team that can get promoted. And he’d love that on his CV again.

“So for us it is business as usual. He’s our manager until anyone tells us otherwise and that’s it.”

Porter, who came off the bench in Cambridge, is confident that the team can respond with a win at Northampton next Saturday.

“Whenever we’ve lost a game this season we’ve gone on and won the next one and that’s a sign of a good side,” he said.

“We will lose games. We’re not going to go the rest of the season unbeaten but it’s important that we get back to winning ways.

“It’s up to us to respond because we want promotion. There are 20 games to go and it’s up to us to use this because we don’t want to feel like this again.

“We’ll use this as a bit of an inspiration to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”