AFTER 53 days propping up the rest of the Football League a big weight has been lifted off the shoulders of the Newport County AFC players.

The Exiles sunk to the bottom of League Two after an agonisingly late defeat at Grimsby Town on September 27.

The board of directors made the difficult decision to part company with Warren Feeney that night and the transformation since then has been nothing short of remarkable.

In fact Graham Westley has turned things round in an even shorter period of time.

After a 0-0 draw at Colchester United under caretaker boss Sean McCarthy, the new manager lost his first two matches in charge.

County were beaten at Yeovil Town and then went down 3-1 at home to leaders Plymouth Argyle on October 22.

After that match they were six points adrift and seven points from safety and things looked bleak.

Westley blamed the naivety of his young players for that defeat but 28 days later a team brimming with youthful energy and enthusiasm made Notts County look like zombies.

Star of the show once again was midfield magician Josh Sheehan.

The Swansea City starlet was fouled for the penalty that Sean Rigg tucked away at the second attempt to give the visitors a deserved lead at Meadow Lane.

He set Rhys Healey on his way towards goal for a spectacular second – a 20-yard rocket from the Cardiff City striker that gave Notts goalkeeper Adam Collin no chance.

And Sheehan sealed a fourth straight win with his fifth goal in six games and he’ll struggle to score a better one in the rest of his career.

Josh O’Hanlon headed a Joe Day punt into his path and the 21-year-old hit an unstoppable dipping volley over Collin that drew gasps of admiration even from some home fans.

Sheehan and Healey, who now have 10 goals between them in six matches, could each have had a hat-trick and home-grown youngster Tom Owen-Evans came off the bench to force a spectacular save with a vicious volley of his own.

It still took two late goals for Yeovil to beat Colchester United and two even later goals for Carlisle United to beat Exeter City to get County off the bottom.

But with Sheehan and Healey in this kind of form and the league table so tight there is a feeling that anything is possible for Westley’s team.

Equally important is the vast improvement at the back with a third clean sheet in four games and the manager was rightly keen to emphasize that this was a triumph for the team, not just individuals.

“I don’t really want to talk about any individual moment in the game because I think that what we saw today was a team that cared about the result,” said Westley.

“The goalkeeper did his job, the centre-backs, the full-backs, the midfield four, the front two – everybody worked so hard.

“And I think when you watch a team working hard and you single out an individual and talk too much about him you take away something from what they deserve.

“The team deserves a lot of credit because every man in it did his job.

“They did them relentlessly throughout the 90 minutes and we’ve come away with the result as a consequence.

“And I think the team really does deserve the credit for the result.”

County: Day, Barnum-Bobb, Jones, Bennett, Butler, Tozer, Sheehan, Jebb (Owen-Evans, 70), Rigg, O’Hanlon, Healey (Myrie-Williams, 88)

Subs not used: Bittner, Compton, Angel, Wood, Touray

Booked: Rigg

Referee: Andy Haines

Attendance: 3,883