GRAHAM Coughlan believes Newport County AFC’s mean streak in defence is down to the work put in when goals were still being leaked at the end of last year.
The Exiles will hunt a fifth clean sheet since the turn of the year when they head to Milton Keynes Dons this afternoon.
County have shut out Doncaster, Wrexham, Walsall and Gillingham in the seven League Two fixtures in 2024.
Only one side in the Football League, Championship Leeds (two), have conceded fewer than their five goals.
County are ranked 14th in League Two for goals conceded but are starting to get back to the miserly ways of the start of Coughlan’s reign.
That is partly down to getting players back from injury and being able to name a settled side, but also down to graft on the training pitch.
“We have done a lot of work over the course of the season,” said former centre-back Coughlan. “When you are making silly errors and conceding silly goals it looks like they are calamitous and don’t know what they are doing.
“Work done [in training] comes through further down the road and I think that we are benefiting now from it.
“At the time I wasn’t best pleased with silly goals after we had worked all week on defensive shape, organisation, keeping the ball out of the box and putting bodies on the line. On a Saturday we’d go and concede goals and you are pulling your hair out.
“Now we are getting the benefit of the work on the training ground, but let’s not tempt fate.”
County face a MK Dons side seventh for goals per match (1.6), third for shots on target per match (5.1) and second for accurate passes per match (420.3)
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