Coughlan happy with Exiles battling draw at Colchester

Newport boss Graham Coughlan was happy with the stalemate against relegation-threatened Colchester on Saturday afternoon.

The U’s are now only three points above the League Two relegation zone after a third successive draw.

The home side had their chances to grab a second-half winner, with Samson Tovide firing into the side-netting after going past Newport goalkeeper Joe Day, who also denied substitute John Akinde.

But U’s keeper Kieran O’Hara twice saved from Mickey Demetriou near the end as the points were shared.

Newport now sit nine points above the relegation zone after following up their win at Tranmere by securing a hard-fought point on the road.

“It’s a good point – I’d have liked to have won it and we had a couple of chances at the end,” Coughlan said.

“The way we started wasn’t great and I’ve got to take a bit of responsibility for that because I’ve worked on a plan over the last 10 days and we’ve worked really, really hard on it.

“You could see we were rusty and a little bit leggy and the pitch lent itself to a damp squib of a game.

“It wasn’t great and in the first half an hour, we never got off the bus.

“We were flat and never gave our fans anything to cheer about but we grew into the game and there was some good stuff in the second half.

“I don’t look over my shoulder at the bottom end of the table or being 18th – I’d like us to be further up the division but the performances have been strong.”