County manager Dean Holdsworth continued his hectic weekend by announcing the signing of Dorchester forward Leon Osei yesterday.

Holdsworth saw his side go down 3-2 at Braintree on Saturday in a controversial match that ended with disturbances in the crowd, but the signing of Osei has lifted the mood ahead of tonight’s Blue Square South match at Weston-super-Mare.

The left-winger has previously been associated with Queen’s Park Rangers and Stevenage Borough.

“He scored against us twice this season and when I heard Dorchester had released him, I decided to give him a chance,” said the County manager.

Holdsworth had mixed feelings following his side’s setback in Essex on Saturday. The Exiles twice came from behind in the first half through Justyn Roberts and Craig Reid, only for the home side to snatch a winner with 11 minutes remaining.

“I’m reasonably happy with the performance but not the result,” he said.

“I thought we controlled the game for long periods and played some fantastic stuff and Craig Reid in particular was outstanding, so there were lots of positives.

“I am disappointed with the way we defended set pieces which gifted them their two first-half goals while the third was just a hook-on which we should have dealt with,” he added.

“But the players will pick themselves up and we had a great response from our fans who made the long journey to support us.”

The County boss was also infuriated by the provocative behaviour of members of the home bench following Braintree’s third goal, when it appeared that the Newport fans were being challenged by Braintree substitutes.

“I’ll always back our fans if they are not to blame and all of Braintree’s substitutes ran over to provoke them when they scored their goal, and it could have got very nasty,” he said.

Meanwhile Portuguese triallist Rui Branguina is believed to have left the Exiles without playing a game for the club.