Newport County team spirit stronger than 2013 promotion season

Willmott, David Pipe and Michael Flynn were all part of the squad that beat Wrexham in the Conference play-off final at Wembley six years ago.

And the trio are aiming to seal a second promotion with the Exiles this month via the League Two play-offs.

County need to win at Morecambe on Saturday to ensure that they finish in seventh position and Willmott is confident that the current crop can match the class of 2013.

The winger told iFollow Exiles: “I’ve been here before and got promoted and I can honestly say that the team spirit this time around is a lot stronger than what we had then, which is saying something because we had a very good group then.

“This would top everything,” added the 28-year-old, who left County in 2015 and returned two years later.

“I’ve been on a very special journey with this club in the two good spells I’ve had here.

“It’s going to be up top if we do it because no-one expected us to get into the play-offs.

“People probably thought we’d fade away again. Our budget isn’t the biggest, but we don’t know when we’re beaten and that’s a real good trait.

“We always knew it was going to be a tough ask. We knew we had a tough run-in, but the gaffer says it all the time – we don’t make it easy for ourselves and we thrive off that.

“It’s a special, special time for this football club.”

Flynn is now in the manager’s seat and Pipe will retire at the end of the season after finding his game-time limited over the past few months.

But Willmott, who was an unused substitute at Wembley in 2013, is a key man in the County attack and has recently agreed a new two-year deal.

He’d love to be playing in League One next season, but he knows that beating Morecambe will be no easy task.

“It’s in our hands and that’s the way we like it,” said the former Cambridge United and Luton Town man.

“But we know Morecambe are in good form. They’ve got Kevin Ellison, who obviously loves scoring against us, and [County academy graduate] Aaron Collins will probably want to make his mark on the game too.

“They’ve got some potential match winners but we’re going to go there with the mindset that we need three points and hopefully we can grind it out.

“We know we could potentially do it with a point but we don’t want to rely on anyone else’s results.

“We are the favourites now for the play-offs, but we won’t be going to Morecambe with that mindset. We have to go with the mindset that three points will get the job done.”

Willmott is also hoping to see a big contingent of travelling fans at the Globe Arena this weekend.

“I know it’s a long trip for everyone, but we want as many people as possible up there with us,” he said. “We’d really appreciate any support.

“You definitely need a great support and in the two spells I’ve been here, they’ve been fantastic to me. I truly, truly appreciate what they do for the club.

“There’s some special, special fans in the crowd and I can only say that I love every single one of them.

“They’ve been immense this season, carried us through some games this season and in the last nine games, we’ve needed them massively.

“Hopefully we can bring as many as we can and get the job done for them.”

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