NEWPORT County boss Dean Holdsworth is ready to break some hearts in order to keep the Exiles’ promotion bid on course.

The Exiles stayed top of the Blue Square South on Saturday thanks to a 1-0 win over Basingstoke, with Holdsworth dropping Paul Cochlin, Ashan Holgate and Scott Rogers from his side.

However, the boss insists he’ll continue to be the tinkerman and that his players are right behind his rotation policy.

He explained: “We’ve got a result, we could’ve had a penalty, but we should’ve carved open a couple more goals really.

“But if you’re not going to win by two or three, you might as well win by one, it’s a good habit to have and I am pleased with the three points.

“We did a lot of good things, there is more improvement to come, but we’ve come through with a great squad performance.

“The reaction of the players I left out (Ashan Holgate, Paul Cochlin, and Scott Rogers) was fantastic and this is it for the rest of the season, it’s going to be about using everyone in the squad and in the big picture, I am really happy, the mentality of the players is spot on.

“They realise it’s not about playing in every game, no-one will do that.”

Holdsworth was pleased with how the players responded to a change from their conventional 4-4-2 formation and is looking forward to Saturday’s huge clash at second-placed Dover.

“We’ll work again this week, enjoy the win and look forward to the next game,” he said.

“The next game is our biggest game of the season, but only because it’s the next one – sorry for the cliché – but we’ll keep plugging away and we’re looking forward to it.

“We’ve got a couple of knocks and Sam Foley isn’t very well (suffering with a heavy cold), but we should be at 100 percent for Dover.

“I wanted a training-ground scenario on the pitch on Saturday and I got it, the style of playing is fluid and we want to stay on the ball as much as we can, we had a spare man, it’s more of a 4-1-4-1, but we have to make sure our distribution is better than it was at times.

“We’ve done a good job, though, to win a difficult game and 1-0 results don’t bother me in the slightest, more goals will come for us.”

Holdsworth revealed that Holgate joined the club short of fitness despite playing regularly for Weston, but is thrilled with his attitude in training and confident he is “working his socks off”, to get up to speed.