Matt Baker aiming high with Newport County after Stoke move

The Wales Under-21s defender, who received a first senior call-up last summer, was offered a fresh contract by Stoke City at the end of last season but instead a compensation deal was struck for a third spell in League Two with the Exiles.

The 21-year-old from Kent learnt the ropes with County over two loan spells – of the current squad only goalkeeper Nick Townsend, defender James Clarke and midfielder Aaron Wildig can beat his tally of 59 appearances – and didn’t hesitate at making a permanent return.

Baker has signed a two-year contract and is confident that he has joined a club on the up.

“Me and Stoke came to an agreement where they didn’t want to get in my way in terms of moving on and I wanted to go out and play men’s football every week,” said uncapped Baker, who was called up for Wales' friendlies against Gibraltar and Slovakia.

“I want to use this as a step and hopefully move higher, whether that’s with Newport or someone else.

HIT: Matt Baker smashed in his first pro goal in County's win against Doncaster (Image: Gareth Everett)

“I am really happy to be here and as soon as I knew that the club wanted me to come back it was a no-brainer.

“When I first came here I was 19 but now I have a couple more years of experience; now that I am here permanently I really want to take on that pressure and use it to lead everyone else and get the wins.”

Baker profited from working under Graham Coughlan, a tough centre-back in his playing days, and is now calling Nelson Jardim ‘gaffer’.

“He’s a really nice guy but knows what he wants and what the players need to do, if you don’t buy into that then you won’t be here,” said Baker.

“He is a really good manager and we are all buying into it. We’ve just got to be consistent, which can hopefully get us into League One.”

There are no demands from owner Huw Jenkins on that progression into challengers to be rapid given the rebuild on and off the field.

The head coach is charged with developing a new passing style at Rodney Parade but the excellent 3-1 win over Doncaster last weekend shows that County can mix it up.

Baker & Co might be tasked with getting the ball down and being brave but they are also happy to roll their sleeves up for the dirty work.

After shipping three goals at Cheltenham and four at Leyton Orient, they got back to basics to protect their lead against late Rovers pressure.

PLAY: Defender Matt Baker will be tasked with keeping possession for County (Image: Kian Abdullah/Huw Evans Agency)

“It’s part of League Two, if you don’t earn the right to play then it’s not going to work,” said Baker, who scored his first professional goal to make it 3-1.

“You have to do the dirty work first and we did that against Doncaster; there are times when we could have played a bit more but with the state of the game, we probably just needed to get up into their half.”

Whether in a 3-5-2 or version of 4-3-3, County will gradually be asked to be brave on the ball to boss possession.

“It’s not going to change overnight and it will take everyone buying into it,” said centre-back Baker, who has also occasionally played as a sitting midfielder.

“For us to get a hard-fought win in which we played really well boosted everyone. It has given us the motivation to kick on and we trust that the process works.

“We are in a really good place, it might not have looked like that after the first two games but we are all buzzing and can’t wait for the next game.

“We can’t get too high and we need to be even better against Accrington on Saturday.”