NEWPORT County AFC have shown they can mix it with their fellow League Two play-off contenders - but boss Graham Coughlan is just concentrating on beating last season.

The Exiles are on the fringes of the tussle for the top seven thanks to Tuesday's madcap 5-3 win against Morecambe at Rodney Parade.

County led 3-1 early in the second half after an Aaron Wildig double either side of an Adam Lewis volley.

The Shrimps came back to level before Harry Charsley's well-placed finish made it 4-3 in the 78th minute and then Seb Palmer-Houlden scored at the death.

The Exiles have passed Coughlan's first target for the campaign of 50 points and now he wants to beat last season's tally of 57.

However, they are also in the mix for the play-offs with Saturday's hosts AFC Wimbledon currently seventh, five points ahead of them having played a game more.

Since the turn of the year, County have already beaten fellow contenders Walsall, Gillingham, Harrogate and the Shrimps.

“Morecambe are another play-off team that we have played and come out on top against in a mini-battle. We probably can’t reach the elite level of this division but there is a level that we can go to,” said Coughlan, whose side beat second-placed Wrexham but lost to leaders Mansfield and third-placed Stockport.

“We’ve got to 52 points now and that’s magnificent and a brilliant achievement, but this group of lads want more, I want more and I am sure the fans will want more.

“Our first target was to stay in the division by getting to 50 and our second target is 57, with nine games left to do that in. There is plenty to play for.

“We’ve got a target now that we need to chase down and go after, hopefully we can get to it sooner rather than later.”

County’s attack failed to fire against automatic promotion contenders Mansfield and Stockport but they created chances galore against Morecambe.

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

They were, however, open at the back and could easily have lost a game that they were in control of at 2-0 and 3-1.

“We are a team that want to play high-energy football, be on the front foot and score goals,” said Coughlan.

“We played really, really well in stages and some parts of that game were the best that we have played this season, with the best quality, finishing, timing of runs in the box, crossing.

“But other stages of it we looked as we weren’t ourselves and I suppose that added to the entertainment.”

County seemingly got through the game without any more injuries and have also passed a notable mark in the season.

They have now played 37 League Two fixtures and that means that individuals that pick up 10 yellow cards will no longer be banned for two games.

Aaron Wildig is top of County’s naughty list with nine cautions and the only suspension to date this season was captain Ryan Delaney’s one-match ban for being yellow-carded twice against Barrow.

Boss Graham Coughlan did also serve a touchline ban for bookings in the FA Cup replay at Eastleigh.