NEWPORT’S deadly winger Elliot Frewen is confident he and his Black and Ambers teammates can bounce back from Saturday’s agonising 23-21 home defeat to Carmarthen Quins.

The Black and Ambers face Neath at the Gnoll tonight (kick-off 7.15pm) determined to get back to winning ways against a Welsh All Blacks side without a victory all season.

The hosts have lost eight out of eight competitive matches so far this season – including seven in the Principality Premiership – and are bottom of the table with just five points to their name.

The 26-year-old Frewen, the Premiership’s joint top try scorer last season with 12 touchdowns, is determined Newport aren’t their first victims of the troubled Neath during this campaign.

The Bridgend-born flyer celebrated his third try of this term in the narrow loss to Carmarthen Quins – currently second in the league table after winning eight from eight – but was devastated to lose a game the hosts should have won.

“It was great to score against the Quins last week, but that was the most disappointed I have ever felt after a game, losing that one,” he said.

“It’s hard to get over a defeat like that. It was one we should have 100 per cent and it would have given us a big confidence boost to beat a team at the top who hadn’t lost in the league.

“We need to adopt (champions) Pontypridd’s winning mentality in games because we do tend to doubt ourselves, which is a shame.

“But we’ve got to pick ourselves up and it has also given us confidence to know we can compete with the leading sides this season. We’ve got to keep our belief.”

Frewen, a retained firefighter, added: “They will be targeting a win, we will be targeting a win. It’s a big clash and we certainly don’t want to be the first team to lose to them this season.”

Wing Owen Broad is expected to be out of action this weekend as he continues to recover from knee ligament damage in the heavy defeat to Llandovery last month.