MANAGER Graham Westley has rejected the suggestion that Newport County AFC need a miracle to avoid relegation.

County are six points from safety at the bottom of League Two with 14 games to go but Westley is convinced that his side is making progress.

The Exiles have earned nine points from their past eight matches having lost eight in a row between late November and early January.

And, ahead of today’s trip to play-off chasing Mansfield Town, Westley insists that he’s “relaxed” about the battle to stay up and that County "will be fine.”

Asked if his side now need a miracle, he said: “I’ve never contemplated that thought. I think we need to keep building on what we’re doing.

“We managed to find ourselves in a situation where we lost eight games on the bounce.

“I can understand why that happened – because we weren’t very good and lots of people didn’t do their jobs to the standard that was required to win points and football matches.

“It had been going on long before I came here and it carried on while I was here.

“I was doing everything I could to try to persuade people to improve their standards of performance but I couldn’t get there, they wouldn’t do it and if you don’t do the right things you don’t win games.

“There’s been a long-standing problem, we’ve changed things round, players have gone and players have arrived, and we’ve now ground out seven unbeaten games in eight.

“We haven’t won seven games in eight but we’ve ground out seven unbeaten in eight, which is a really good response from the squad.

“And providing that we keep building on that response we’ll be fine.”

Westley added: “Over eight games we’ve got better at certain things and over the next eight games I think we’ll go to another level.

“You can forecast what you’ll need but I just think if we keep improving we’ll be fine, I really do.”

Victory today would set up the Exiles perfectly for next weekend’s home clash with Leyton Orient, who are currently three points above them in 23rd place.

“We can get off the bottom, that’s why it was important the other night psychologically to nick that point,” said Westley, referring to the 1-1 draw with Morecambe on Tuesday night.

“You get that point and you close the gap and you give yourself the chance to leapfrog somebody and then you play that side the following weekend and you can step away from them.

“The law of averages says that somebody on 32 points probably won’t win [this weekend] and if you do then you might get within three of them and then you can get out of the bottom two next weekend.

“League tables change all the time and what you need to do evolves all the time.

“I’d just like to see us in the next eight games produce the wins that I know we’re capable of.

“We had those eight losses and we recovered that with seven unbeaten in eight.

“We’ve taken more than a point a game for the last eight games, which might not seem fabulous but it is an important stepping stone for us.

“And I do think, as our team continues to gel and our understanding of our patterns continues to evolve, I think we’ll win football matches so I’m pretty relaxed about it.”