NEWPORT County manager John Cornforth, pictured, has thrown down the gauntlet to his young squad to maintain the standard of the last two games.

Goals from Darren Jones and John Phillips (two) were not enough to prevent County suffering 4-3 extra time Conference Cup heartache at Forest Green last night to go out of the competition, but they matched their Conference opponents for much of the 120 minutes of a pulsating tie.

Now Cornforth wants his side to build on the performance as well as last Saturday's battling 1-1 draw at Hornchurch.

"In the last two games the players have set the standards and I need that to continue," Cornforth said. "They have worked very, very hard and played good football and we now look like we can score goals.

"I was delighted with the whole squad, they wore their hearts on their sleeves and did the club proud.

"We had a team of youngsters out there and I had to scrape to get a team together with Scott Morgan and Andrew Thomas out injured, but in the end we had two or three chances to win the match and it is disappointing to eventually go out to a deflection."

He added: "The pitch was not the best and I think that suited them. They like to lump the ball forward and they got their first two goals from 40 yard lumps up the field.

"Despite the pitch I thought that we played some great passing football at times and Sam (O'Sullivan) and John (Phillips) caused them a lot of problems.

"It is great for me as a manager to have them both in form and I don't care how old they are - if you play well you will be in the team."

Cornforth revealed he has called on the services of his former captain at Exeter City, centre-back Chris Curran, who is coming to the club to train this week with a view to playing on a non-contract basis.

He said: "I have Chris coming down and we'll have him training and see how he looks.

"He has loads of experience and we need some bodies at the moment, especially if Andrew Thomas is not fit by the weekend."