DEFENDER Ciaran Brennan is relishing a fresh start at Newport County AFC after ending his 11-year stay at Sheffield Wednesday this summer.

After loan spells with Gainsborough Trinity, Notts County, Swindon Town and Hartlepool United, the 24-year-old finally cut ties with his hometown club to join the Exiles on a two-year deal in July.

After a tough first two games with defeats at Cheltenham Town and Leyton Orient, Brennan has helped County to back-to-back home wins over Doncaster Rovers and Accrington Stanley.

And he’s hoping to help his new club secure a first away win of the season at Morecambe this afternoon to continue a promising start to life in Newport.

“It is a new start for me, I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a while,” he said.

“I probably should have taken the chance two years ago to go out on a permanent [deal] and find a new home.

“You’re always hanging on to that as an academy player at a Championship club, trying to get those Championship appearances in. And when it doesn’t quite happen, you can easily get lost in the system and forgotten about.

“That is what really frustrated me during my time at Sheffield Wednesday; you know that you’re good enough, but you just don’t get that opportunity and you end up getting stuck playing reserve team football.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity to come and now that it’s here I want to grasp it with both hands,” he added.

“I’ve had loan moves, but it’s a different feeling when you move on a permanent basis – you feel like this is your club now, your home.

“When you’re on loan, it’s not a stepping stone, but you are there for yourself and to kick on in the next part of your career.

“Now I’m a Newport County player and I want to do my best for the club.

“My aim is to play as many games as I can and play as well as I know I can. I want to be known as one of the best players in this team.”

Morecambe have yet to score a goal in three matches in League Two this season and Brennan would love to secure a first clean sheet today.

“It’s been spoken about,” he admitted. “When you’re playing at the back, if you’ve got a clean sheet, you’ve got license to moan at the others at the top of the pitch when they’re not doing their job!

“It’s something we’ve spoken about and it’s something we want to eradicate – the first game at Cheltenham and the Leyton Orient game [in the Carabao Cup] we gave away sloppy goals and the game management was poor. With the timings of the goals, we conceded it a bit naïve from our point of view.

“Once we can get clean sheets it will give us a great platform to kick on and push higher up the table.”