MANAGER Graham Coughlan believes Newport County AFC are ‘punching well above our weight’ in League Two this season.

The Exiles made a promising start to the campaign, which also featured a Carabao Cup upset against League One Charlton and taking Premier League Brentford to penalties, but then endured a winless September when injuries took their toll.

They lost 2-1 at home to Harrogate last Saturday to slip to 19th in the table ahead of a tough run of games against promotion hopefuls Swindon, Notts County and Gillingham on the road and Walsall in Newport.

County, tipped by many to have a relegation scrap, have one of the lowest budgets in the EFL after financial problems that have led to a takeover proposal by former Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins being rubber-stamped.

Added to that is a long injury list that features seven first-teamers, leaving Coughlan down to just 15 fit senior outfield players.

South Wales Argus: Newport County manager Graham CoughlanNewport County manager Graham Coughlan (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

The manager criticised his team after the loss to Harrogate but praised their reaction after Tuesday’s 2-0 win at Cheltenham in the EFL Trophy.

“We are a really young team and I probably have to calm myself down at times because maybe at times I expect too much of them,” said Coughlan.

“With the situation that we are in, we are punching well above our weight and outperforming our budget, which is massively positive.

“We have a big challenge ahead of us, I can’t overstate how difficult it is, but we absolutely love it as you can see on nights like Tuesday when those young lads run, chase, press, hustle and harry.

“We got a clean sheet, which has been a rarity this season, and a win. Hopefully that performance will give us a little bit of confidence going into a big game this weekend at Swindon.”

Coughlan was boosted by the return of Stoke loanee Matt Baker after a hamstring injury in Cheltenham but is likely to be without midfielder Aaron Wildig in Swindon after he suffered a likely concussion on Tuesday.

Defenders James Clarke, Declan Drysdale, Kyle Jameson and Adam Lewis, midfielder Harry Charsley and strikers Seb Palmer-Houlden and Offrande Zanzala are on the injury list, with the majority expected to be out until at least late autumn.

“We will get stronger as we get healthier. I love working with this group of boys and I can only see us getting stronger over time,” said Coughlan, who was appointed last October.

“But bear in mind we are still punching well above our weight and outperforming our budget; we are in a far stronger position that we were last year and our resources are a lot weaker.

“We are maximising and getting everything we can out of this group and fair play to them.”