NEWPORT County AFC manager James Rowberry will raise a glass to his team tonight as he reflects on a performance that he says filled him with pride.

County battled back from a goal down to beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1 and end their miserable run of seven straight defeats at Rodney Parade.

Aaron Lewis’s 23rd-minute own goal gave Tranmere a fortunate lead but Nathan Moriah-Welsh marked his first start with the equaliser six minutes later following a superb run from debutant Thierry Nevers.

And Omar Bogle claimed his third goal of the season with a penalty seven minutes before the break after James Clarke was brought down by Kyle Jameson.

County should have extended their advantage after the break with Bogle going close on a number of occasions and James Waite wasting one golden chance, but they didn’t need a third goal in the end.

“I’m delighted with what we’ve done today,” said Rowberry.

“For me, it’s been a long time coming. We’re getting closer to what we’re trying to do.

I’m so proud of them

“It wasn’t always the perfect performance, but it was so much better than Tuesday [against Salford City].

“I’m really proud of everyone, of how we came together and came through a little bit of adversity.

“I can enjoy a nice glass of red wine tonight now, which I’m going to!”

Rowberry hailed his players’ character as they once again responded to adversity.

“I think that’s three own goals we’ve scored now this season, which is something we need to look at,” he said.

“I think it’s just a little bit of nerves because the lads want to do well for the supporters and the football clubs.

“But it’s another comeback – we’ve done that twice already this season and we did it a lot last season, which shows the resilience of this group.

“That stems back from Mark O’Brien’s era to now and we’ve got to continue that.

“There’s a lot of things gone on that people don’t know about and how this group bounce back – I’m so proud of them.”

Rowberry picked out new boys Moriah-Welsh and Nevers for special praise.

“Young Nathan has done smashing. I spoke to Carl Fletcher at Bournemouth about him and he said that he can definitely manage League Two.

“We’ve just got to manage the expectation with Nathan because he’s going to sometimes find it hard to do that every week, so we can’t expect too much too quickly.

“With Thierry, I felt he could come in and affect the game and you could see how effective he is on that left-hand side of the pitch.”

County are back in action on Tuesday night when they welcome League One Portsmouth to Rodney Parade in the second round of the Carabao Cup (kick-ff 7.45pm).