MANAGER Justin Edinburgh believes his Newport County AFC players will once again show their courage in adversity at Exeter City this afternoon, writes Andrew Penman.

County head to St. James’ Park looking for their first away victory in League Two and a first league win since August 17.

With a lengthy injury list added to by the absence of Christian Jolley, who has an operation on his groin injury this morning, the clash with the in-form Grecians will be another big test for Edinburgh’s men.

But the Exiles boss is convinced that his players will bounce back from last week’s 3-2 home defeat to Morecambe.

“We keep coming up against the form teams at the moment with Mansfield, Morecambe and now Exeter,” said Edinburgh.

“Every challenge is a big challenge at the moment but this group of players relish a challenge and they always seem to bounce back when wounded.

“Exeter are unbeaten at home but we were up until last week so records are there to be broken and we go there full of confidence.

“It’s been a good week,” he added. “We were disappointed last week but we’re over it and looking forward.

“To have lost the game was frustrating but as a manager you have to take the positives and there was a lot there.

“Apart from our errors they didn’t really have a shot on target.”

County were beaten thanks to two own goals from Tom Naylor, who also conceded the winning penalty, but Edinburgh praised his centre-back’s attitude this week.

“I’ve been really pleased with Tom,” he said. “It would have been quite easy for him to have drifted through training and not put himself in a position to make mistakes in training but that certainly hasn’t been the case.

“I’ve been delighted with his attitude and barring the errors last week he’s been excellent for us. You can’t just turn on one person because of the errors he’s made.”

Edinburgh has to decide whether to stick with Naylor or recall fit-again defenders Ismail Yakubu or Tom Naylor.

Conor Washington is expected to keep his place up front with Jolley going under the knife and Aaron O’Connor still not ready to return.

Exeter boss Paul Tisdale is expecting a good test for his fourth-placed side.

“They have an experienced football man in Justin Edinburgh and they have some good players – I think they’ve done extremely well,” he said.

“They’ve sold a lot of tickets – it’s a game that isn’t too far for Newport, and this will be an interesting game for their supporters,” he added.

“We’ve had a good start to the season and Newport are doing particularly well – I’m hoping that it’s going to be a really enjoyable afternoon.”