TOP scorer Padraig Amond has urged frustrated Newport County AFC fans to stick with the team after a “difficult” few months.

County have slipped to 16th in the League Two table and they saw their Wembley dream ended on Wednesday as they bowed out of the Leasing.com Trophy at the semi-final stage after a 6-5 penalty shootout defeat to Salford City at Rodney Parade.

Amond admits that the players need to improve, but he believes that they can still make a late charge for the League Two play-offs.

“A lot of people criticised my move down here because they said Newport County would probably get relegated,” said the striker, who signed from Hartlepool United in August 2017.

“But, for the majority of the time I’ve been here, we’ve been in the top half of the table and fighting right until the end. Hopefully it will be the same this year. Hopefully there is a lot more to come.

“There have been so many highs and a couple of lows, but even when you look back at those, they were getting beat in a play-off final. That was still a fantastic achievement.

“If you look at the club as a whole, there has been a lot of progression,” he added.

“Five years ago the club would have been happy with a season like this, but now it’s viewed as we should be doing better.”

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Looking ahead to tomorrow’s home clash with Bradford City, Amond knows that the Exiles need to start picking up points quickly to keep the season alive.

“It has been difficult times for us, let’s not make any bones about it,” said the 31-year-old.

“I’ve never seen an injury crisis like the one we’ve had recently and everything is going against us at the moment.

“I understand the frustrations and we do have to do better on the pitch at times.

“That’s down to us as players. We’re leaving everything on the pitch and I believe, if the fans stick with us, we’ve shown in the past we have more good times than bad.

“We’re still not out of the play-off race – this time last year we went on that crazy run.

"We still believe we can do stuff, but we’re running out of chances now.”

Read more: Newport County boss backing Ryan Inniss after crucial penalty miss against Salford City