NEWPORT County AFC midfielder Josh Sheehan relishing a rest from League Two action, but first he wants to help keep the Exiles in the Leasing.com Trophy with a win over Exeter City tomorrow night.

Saturday’s league trip to Cheltenham Town has been postponed due to international call-ups for Danny McNamara, Lewis Collins and Keanu Marsh-Brown.

That means County will have 11 days off from match action after Tuesday’s tie and Sheehan is looking forward to a little break.

“It can be a blessing,” Sheehan told iFollowExiles after the weekend win over Carlisle United.

“It allows the boys who have played a lot of games to have a rest. But we do kind of want to keep playing because we’re on a winning and unbeaten streak.

“We just want to play every game as soon as we can. The gaffer has said he’ll now put a strong team out on Tuesday.

“We just want to keep on playing games, but we’ll see it as a nice little rest for a few days off.”

Sheehan was an unused substitute in the last Trophy tie, a 5-4 defeat to West Ham United under-21s, but he could now feature against Exeter.

And, if he does, he’ll be desperate to help keep the Exiles in the competition.

“We’re going into the game to try and win,” said the 24-year-old.

“We want to win every game, regardless of whether it’s league or cup.

“We want to stay in the tournament because it’s good for the club and good for everyone.

“It’s a chance to get to Wembley and we want to go as far as we can.

“And Exeter are one of the top teams in League Two, so we want to get one over on them and beat them.”

South Wales Argus:

Sheehan knows that the competition is not popular with everyone, but he appealed to County fans to come out and support the team.

“We want the supporters to come and support the boys,” he said. “I feel we play better the more fans there are.

“We appreciate it so much when they travel to Macclesfield on a Tuesday night, we do really appreciate and sometimes it’s in our team talks to do it for the fans.

“Hopefully as many as possible will come.”

Tickets cost between £5 and £7 and are available from the Kingsway club shop today and from the Rodney Parade ticket office from 5pm tomorrow.

Reflecting on the 1-0 victory over Carlisle, which was secured thanks to substitute George Nurse's spectacular stoppage-time winner, Sheehan felt an eighth clean sheet in 12 league games was key as County climbed to third in the table.

"We’re a good defensive team overall, not just as a back three or back four, we press from the front when we need to and sit back when we need to," he said. "From one to eleven, we make sure we’re defensively solid.

"You always try to win every game and at the moment, we’re doing that.

"After the Northampton defeat, we’ve gone back on the unbeaten run and we want to keep building that unbeaten run.

"But the mentality of this squad is to go in and win every game.

"We’re not scared of anyone and we feel like we can go into games and get all three points, home or away.

"We’ll keep pushing and see where it goes."

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