BRYN Morris believes Newport County AFC need better game management if they are to improve on the road in League Two.
The Exiles head to Harrogate on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) after an encouraging performance but pointless trip to Bradford City on Monday.
Nelson Jardim’s side trailed 1-0 at the break after bogeyman Andy Cook’s superb header but they were excellent after the restart and deservedly levelled through Kyle Hudlin.
However, County failed to leave Yorkshire with anything to show for their efforts after goals by Jamie Walker and Bobby Pointon in the 75th and 85th minutes.
The Exiles have taken three points from five games on their travels, with the solitary success a backs-to-the-wall win at struggling Morecambe.
They have also failed to draw a game under head coach Jardim and the last time they shared the spoils in League Two was New Year’s Day.
“That comes down to game management. We could be a bit better with that, especially when it’s late on and we are level,” admitted midfielder Morris.
“It’s probably good for the neutrals but we would like to have put a point on the board rather than none.”
“We can take confidence from Bradford but we do lack a bit of experience in the squad, which does show away from home,” he continued.
“Overall, we dealt with the big stadium and crowd in Bradford and we had chances which we would have put away on another night.
“The younger players are learning and getting better every week, hopefully we can keep building.”
The display against Bradford was a dramatic improvement on the efforts at Swindon and Barrow in September.
“We have to take confidence from it going into the next game,” said Morris, who is in a deeper role this season after smashing in eight goals in his first campaign at County.
“We had a really good spell for a good 20 minutes at the start of the second half when we were on top and created good chances. There were just moments that cost us.”
Nonetheless, it has been a solid start to the season for the Exiles after a summer of change in which Jardim replaced Graham Coughlan and 17 new players were brought in.
The wins against Crewe and Salford then good patches at Bradford suggest that the squad is gelling and should have enough to avoid a scrape with relegation.
“It does take time because we had a massive turnaround of players but we were all disappointed in Bradford because of the levels and standards that we set in the previous few games,” said Morris.
“We have to take confidence from it and we will go again, we pick ourselves up for another long journey.
“If we take three points from that then it’s three wins out of four, so we are getting better and there’s more to come.
“It has been a decent start but a common theme since I have been here is that we never really get a consistency of the starting XI.
“‘Glenno’ [left-back Antony Glennon] picked up another booking so he’s not going to play on Saturday but we have a deep enough squad to deal with that.”
Jardim will mull over his options for the replacement with versatile full-back Shane McLoughlin, who filled in down the left last season, currently injured.
Fit-again centre-back James Clarke could return after being an unused substitute at Bradford with Kyle Jameson an emergency option at full-back.
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