NEWPORT County midfielder Yan Klukowski insists the entire Exiles squad still believe they can get promoted this season.

The Exiles are clinging to a play-off spot in League Two after a nightmare run of results at Rodney Parade, where the amber army have failed to win in their last five outings.

However, their fine form on the road has kept them in contention for promotion and Klukowski insists confidence is high ahead of today’s visit to Stevenage.

“It’s odd at the moment with the results, when we lost against Mansfield I expected us to fall out of the play-offs and when I looked it up it was a very pleasant surprise to see us still in there,” he explained.

“We are not making it easy for ourselves, it seems like we are trying our hardest to throw it away! I can assure fans we are not doing that, we are trying 110% to stay in there and rectify the home form while continuing our great away form.

“At the start of the season, if we had been offered a play-off place at the start of March we would have grabbed it with both hands.

“There is a lot of hard work that has gone into us being where we are in the league and it would be silly to let that slip.

“Mansfield was very frustrating, it is twice now that we haven’t capitalised on fantastic away performances and results.

“That’s something we need to put right and hopefully we can get another good result at Stevenage and can follow that up against Cheltenham and put that bad home form behind us and make Rodney Parade a fortress.”

Klukowski admits a win today would give County an edge in the promotion shake-up.

“This is a big game, they all are now and we are looking forward to the battle,” he said.

“It’s important, we want a minimum of a point and there is a psychological advantage to beating one of your rivals in the table as well. If we can rectify our home form, we will be in the play-offs, going on a run will solidify our position and we should be looking at closing the gap on the teams above us, not always looking over our shoulder.

“We want to keep it in our hands; we can only control ourselves and want to keep our destiny in our own hands by controlling what we can.”

The former Forest Green man insists he is enjoying playing as an unorthodox left winger away from home, with Newport deploying a midfield diamond at times as well.

“Playing wide is not too unfamiliar, I do prefer playing in the middle, but as long as I am in the starting XI and we are winning games I don’t mind where I am playing,” he said.

“I think I’m best suited to playing in the middle, it is where I am most used to from my time at Forest Green and if I am given a chance to play more as a number 10 I would be comfortable with it, I always put pressure on myself to score goals.”