DEFENDER Dan Butler says he’s “happy to stay” at Newport County AFC and he can’t see why anyone would want to leave the club after another year of progress.

Butler is one of several senior players out of contract this summer but he revealed that he has had discussions with manager Michael Flynn about a new deal.

And the left-back is confident that the core of the squad will remain at Rodney Parade next season to continue the club’s rise up the League Two table.

“There’s probably hundreds and hundreds of players that are out of contract this summer,” said Butler, who has helped the Exiles climb from 22nd in the last two seasons to 12th place so far this term.

“There’s not going to be many positions up for grabs and if you don’t have a club it’s hard, no matter who you’ve played for or how many games you’ve played.

“I’m sure everyone’s got that in the back of their mind and hopefully we’ll all use that in the right way to get a new contract and if not here then do well enough to go somewhere else.

“I’m not going to lie, it didn’t start particularly great for me but I’ve worked hard and I like to think I’ve had a good season. Hopefully I can carry that on.

“I’m out of contract [this summer]. I’ll be happy to stay. I’ve had conversations with the manager so we’ll see, hopefully we finish the season well and it will get sorted.”

And Butler is hopeful that the likes of Joss Labadie, Scot Bennett, Ben Tozer, Frank Nouble, Marlon Jackson and Paul Hayes follow suit.

“The team spirit here is the best I’ve been involved in,” said the 23-year-old.

“Unless you’re going to go up a level into League One I don’t think there’d be any reason to leave this club for another League Two team at the moment.

“I think it’s just going to go from strength to strength.

South Wales Argus:

“You can see how well we’ve done this season compared to last season and, if I’m here or not, I think this club and the group of players who are here will do even better next year.

“I think it could have gone a lot better this season,” he added.

“There’s a lot of games where we feel like we should have won that we’ve either drawn or even lost late on.

“It’s been a massive turnaround from last season but I think, with a little bit more consistency at times, we could be right up there and hopefully we will be next season.”

Key to that will be finishing this campaign on a high, starting with tomorrow’s home clash with Stevenage.

“As a group we just want to win as many games as possible,” said Butler.

“We’ve come from the bottom to this level and we don’t just want to stay here. We want to keep pushing on and on.

“Last season we survived relegation and took that good form into this season.

“So, even if nothing comes of this season, if we finish it playing well and winning games then that can only be good for next season.”