ECHOSPORT talks to Ed Bridges from the 1912 Exiles podcast ahead of Southend United's match at Newport County tonight. 

What have you made of the season so far?

"As a County fan, it’s been mostly brilliant, albeit a shame to not see the results and performances live.

"Our storming start to the season took many of us by surprise – but not as much as the change in playing style, which saw us morph from a direct and quite physical team into one who play out from the back and pass it around nicely.

"With pitches starting to cut up a bit (especially at Rodney Parade), the coming month or so will be a challenge as we adapt to conditions and try to rediscover that early-season form."

There appeared to have been a slight wobble before the win on Saturday. What do you feel caused that?

"We had a few postponements in December which upset our momentum, but the biggest single factor has probably been Scott Twine returning to Swindon after an excellent loan spell.

"The loss of creativity in midfield will be hard to replace, as will the extra goals he brought to the side."

Do you feel things are back on track now and what are the hopes for the rest of the season?

"We scraped a 1-0 win against Grimsby on Saturday despite being reduced to 10 men, and manager Michael Flynn called it the best win of the season – more for the character and determination than for the quality of the play.

"It will hopefully have settled a few nerves, and we’re perhaps fortunate to be playing Southend in the next game as we look for back-to-back wins against the division’s bottom two sides."

Has the pitch hindered the side?

"A lot gets made of the state of the Rodney Parade pitch, especially by managers of teams we’ve just beaten!

"There’s no point pretending it’s a good surface for football at this time of year, but it’s the same for both teams and sides need to be able to adapt to deal with it.

"We’ve done that very effectively over the years, and can hopefully do the same now even though it necessitates a change to our recent playing style."

How come there have been so many red cards lately, would you say Newport are a dirty side?

"In truth, we’ve been much less physical this season that has been the case in recent years, so the glut of dismissals (four in five games) took fans by surprise, and is hard to attribute to one single factor.

"The poor run of results has maybe compounded things, with players all trying to do everything to reverse our form, and that’s perhaps boiled over into some rash challenges.

"Flynn has been critical of players going to ground too easily, and in our most recent podcast ahead of tonight’s game we’ve said it’s something that has to be addressed if we’re to be promotion challengers."

Who would you say are the dangermen?

"Josh Sheehan – who got capped for Wales in November – will be back from suspension for tonight’s match, and has been a rare creative outlet for us from deep midfield.

"Holding onto him during the transfer window was a huge relief, and now we need him firing on all cylinders after his enforced three-game rest.

"Up front, new signing Nicky Maynard scored on his debut against Grimsby and we’ll be looking to him to build on that tonight."