NEWPORT County AFC manager Terry Butcher was pleased with the grit and determination his side showed in Saturday’s stalemate at Dagenham & Redbridge.

County earned a second draw of the season and Butcher is convinced that a first clean sheet shows there are brighter days ahead for his side.

“It doesn’t matter how it comes along, it is a good point for us because you don’t get used to losing but it is demoralising when you put in good performances and don’t come out with anything,” said the Exiles boss.

“We put in a gritty performance and ground out a point and it feels good because that’s something we really haven’t done this season.

“It doesn’t quite feel like a victory but it certainly feels a lot better than a defeat.

“I feel a lot better than this time last week. That hurt a lot last week but this was very pleasing in many aspects.

“It shows the unity of the squad that they fought so hard.”

Butcher is confident of boosting his squad this week with at least one loan signing.

“We talked about building blocks and we’ve got players to come back in and hopefully one or two players to bring in on loan as well and that will boost the squad,” he said.

“We’ve made good steps on that and we need reinforcements because it was a tough game and we’ve got one or two players carrying knocks.

“Lenell John-Lewis’ hamstrings were very tight at half-time so Zak Ansah came on and had a great shot but he then got kicked in the head and had to come off with concussion.

“And Scott Boden had to disappear up to Sheffield last night for the birth of his son so we send him and his wife congratulations on that.

“We got a call at 3am and Steve Marsella drove him up so our plans went out of the window but he can celebrate being a father and he’ll be delighted that the lads got a point.”

Butcher added: “OK, we haven’t scored and we haven’t played as well as we can do but you can still get confidence from not getting beaten.

“We’ve doubled our points tally and that’s not a lot but for us that’s huge.

“It’s a concern that we haven’t won because we’ve played well enough to win some of those games but all we can do is keep on winning and keep playing the way we want to play and the wins will come.

“They have to and, as long as we don’t lose heart and lose faith, we’ll just keep on going.

“I think we will get it right.”