NEWPORT County winger Stuart James has lost his battle to be fit to face Cambridge City tomorrow(3pm) - but expects a tougher challenge to win his place back.

Argus columnist James pulled his hamstring in County's 2-1 defeat at Weymouth ten days ago which has kept him out of Newport's wins against Welling United (2-1) and Salisbury City (2-0) in the last week.

Despite regular treatment, the midfielder pulled up after twenty minutes training last night and is definitely out.

But far from expecting to walk back into the side once he is fit, James said competition for places is fierce and a spot on the substitutes bench is his goal.

He said: "I wouldn't even expect a place on the bench, the lads have played well in the last two games and I'd be pleased just to be in the reckoning for a place.

"The team has worked very hard and competition for places is pretty fierce, so it was really disappointing for me to pick up an injury and run the risk of losing my place more permanently."

Having watched Tuesday's 2-0 win at Salisbury from the stand, James described County's first half performance as 'exceptional' with goals from Matt Rose and Jeff Eckhardt sealing an impressive win, before defender Steve Benton was sent off for a deliberate foul.

Even with ten men, Newport still matched the home side and James was impressed with what he saw.

He said: "It was a very professional performance, everyone worked hard and Salisbury wouldn't have had too many complaints if we had been three or four goals up at half-time."

With confident buoyed up by their two wins, James added the squad are really keen to seal a convincing win against Cambridge before their second qualifying round FA Cup match against Supermarine Swindon next Saturday.

"The squad believe we can win promotion and the confidence is starting to grow," he said.

"We all want to go into the FA Cup match on the back of a league win, but it's so difficult to predict results this season, there have been some topsy-turvy results in the league."