NO wins in eight games, now two victories in a row for Newport and top of the Welsh League Premier Division into the bargain.

Hardly a transformation, but enough to provide some much needed confidence to take to Swansea at St Helens on Saturday nonetheless.

And with Percy Montgomery arriving tomorrow things are suddenly starting to look up for Newport. They despatched Caerphilly at Rodney Parade last night without much trouble, in command for much of the game and scoring five tries to two.

So much for the positives, but to pretend there werent any negatives would be idle.

Handling errors still abounded, ball retention remained poor, there was an inability to finish the opposition off and the youngsters didnt really hit it off any more than their more senior rivals had done in earlier matches.

Newport coach Leigh Jones wasnt happy with Caerphillys tactics, saying after the game, They came to stop us playing, and they did that in the second half.

The players lost their focus in the second half partly through Caerphillys approach generally, and the referee assisted in that.

The game slowed down so that it was virtually stop-start, and I would question what good that approach is for Welsh rugby.

But its all about winning and I was quite happy with the result if not the performance. But it gives us more confidence and winning gives you momentum.

The Newport pack worked up a fair head of steam in the first half, with Mike Voyle dominating the line-outs and outstanding in every aspect.

Jason Forster powered over for his fourth try of the season from a third minute driving line-out, then came a penalty try when flanker Joe El-Abd dived into a retreating scrum on his own line.

Jason Strange converted and added a penalty for a 15-0 interval lead, which should have been more.

Though less dominant in the second half, Newpoort scored another three tries, but they did concede two as Caerphilly battled hard.

Voyle thrust for the line and Strange linked to put Shane Howarth across, Caerphilly replied when they attacked down the left and switched right for centre Sam Cox to speed over.

But Newports forward power again told and Gareth Gravell and replacement Adrian Garvey crossed for two more, Strange, prominent in both scores, also converting.

Caerphilly refused to lie down and they came again in injury time when wing Ryan Howells dashed across in the corner.

Newport need to make it a hat-trick of wins when they travel to Swansea, but they may be without scrum half Ofisa Tonuu, who went off early in the second half with an injured calf muscle.

Newport: S Howarth, A Cadwallader (M Mostyn 57), H Luscombe, S Williams, J Strange, O Tonuu (L Lane 45), R Snow (D Pattison 74), J Richards, C Anthony (A Garvey 54), S Raiwalui (captain), M Voyle (M Veater 69), S Ojomoh (R Jones 54), G Gravell, J Forster. Scorers. tries: Jason Forster, Shane Howarth, Gareth Gravell, Adrian Garvey, penalty try; conversions: Jason Strange (4); penalty: Strange.

Caerphilly: S Tuipulotu, G Lewis, R Boobyer, S Cox , R Howells, J Thomas, A Chilten, L Manning, C Ferris captain (F Vunipola 30), R Skuse (D Sweet 57), N Watkins (M Workman 53), N Rouse, G Jones (G Liddon 22-30), A Williams (K Hocking 53), J El-Abd. Scorers. tries: Sam Cox, Ryan Howells.