FORMER Cardiff City defender Jason Perry made his long awaited league debut for County - then told the fans they have to work just as hard as the players if Newport are to realise the dream of getting County into the Conference.

A foot injury had kept him out of the first eight games, but he came on for 35 minutes of the match against Welling and got to work organising the County defence and encouraging teammates.

He said: "To get in the Conference, everyone at Newport has got to work together and pull in the right direction.

"That includes the board, the manager, the players and most of all the fans, the more noise they can make the better."

Although pleased to finally make his debut, Perry added he was now training five days a week to build up his fitness and was not taking regular selection for granted.

As a youth development coach in Bridgend, Perry has the rare luxury of combining work with fitness training and says he is some way short of full strength.

Before his introduction to the match, he was shouting encouragement from the touch-lines and said he hopes to help County's crop of youngsters, including defender Andrew Thomas.

He added: "There are very good youngsters here and it was part of the reason I joined the club, because you need a strong youth development set-up to make a serious bid for the Conference and then stay there."

Manager Tim Harris said while he was glad to see Perry on the pitch, County still have a lot of work to do.

He said: "It was good to see Jason playing, he is a leader, once we get him to his proper fitness he will be a major boost to this club."

Pragmatic as always, Harris added: "We are a long way from where we need to get to and that is disappointing for me after nine games, but it's a long old season," he said.

"The players have been left in no uncertain terms that we can't play again like we did at Chelmsford (3-1 defeat).

"And I'm not kidding myself or anyone when I say we still have a long way to go."