GRAHAM Westley believes he has solved the “player problem” at Newport County AFC as his new-look side earned another point at Barnet.

Bottom club County lost eight in a row in League Two before last week’s 1-1 home draw with Colchester United and Saturday’s 0-0 stalemate saw them match another play-off contender at The Hive Stadium.

Westley has added 11 players and released seven in January and there will be more arrivals and departures but the manager believes the work in the transfer market is already paying off.

“Is it a management problem or is it a player problem?” said the Exiles boss.

“I think what we’re showing at the moment is that with personnel who are buying into a certain way of playing and a certain philosophy we’re looking much more like a side that’s going to win points.

“We’ve got to keep our improvement up and if we do we’ll win a lot of points between now and the summer.

“Of course they’re going to take time to gel but you’re watching a team that is defending with a unity, with a sense of purpose, with a togetherness and a desire to win points.

“If we keep building on that we will win a lot of points. There’s 20 games and lots of points to win.

“And provided that the base that we’re putting in place is built upon we’ll be in good shape come the end of the year.”

There could be more new signings at Rodney Parade as soon as Monday.

“The work has begun but the work hasn’t finished,” said Westley.

“I’ve lost count now of how many have come in because there are a couple of deals that might have gone through and I’m not sure if the secretary has completed them but there’s work that is ongoing.

“It’s been a busy month and it needs to be a busy month because there was a lot to turn around.

“The club had lost a lot of games when I arrived and we needed to do some work to change the club’s fortunes.”

Defeats for Notts County and Cheltenham Town allowed the Exiles to move to within five points of safety.

But Westley said: “Results don’t matter. If you start looking at league tables and worrying about other people’s results you make the biggest and most fatal mistake in football.

“What you have to do is get yourself right game after game, week after week, to win your own games.”

Explaining Mark Randall’s substitution after just 28 minutes, the manager added: “Randall has been under the weather.

“He wasn’t quite at it so I made that change because you don’t want to concede a goal before you realise that the player is suffering.

“Sometimes you’ve got to put them out of their own misery when they’re being brave for you and take the onus off them.”