TOP scorer Padraig Amond has told Newport County AFC manager Michael Flynn that he can be the 20-goal-a-season striker he’s searching for next season.

Flynn revealed after Saturday’s 2-1 win over Swindon Town that he is on the hunt for a prolific striker to spearhead a play-off push in 2019.

But Amond, who netted his 12th of the campaign with a sublime volley against the Robins, is convinced that he can improve his tally next season.

“I’m critical of myself and I should have more goals,” said the Irishman, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Sunday.

“If I’d taken a couple more chances I could be that player.

“The manager always wants a 20-goal-a-season striker and I’ll just keep working as hard as I can and keep doing everything I can and if I can be that player then brilliant.

“If it’s someone else who can bring us to the next level then that’s brilliant as well because at the end of the day you want to be involved in a successful squad and you need players pushing.

“We’re a little bit light at the moment up front but we all want to be that player and hopefully with a good pre-season ahead of me I could be that player for the club next year.”

Saturday’s goal was Amond’s first since January and he admitted that the last few weeks have been tough for him.

“I’m just pleased that the gaffer kept faith with me,” he said.

“It was frustrating. Every time I seemed to get a chance keepers were making great saves against me.

“Obviously the most important thing is that we won the game but it’s nice to be back on the scoresheet.”

And he revealed that the apparently instinctive lob over Swindon stopper Stuart Moore was the result of some pre-match homework.

“I knew that their goalkeeper came quite far forward and he has been done a couple of times that way so I did mean it,” said Amond.

“I’ve watched a few clips of him and I spoke to someone at another club, who will remain nameless, who told me about it.

“So the credit has to go to him – an ex-teammate of mine.”

South Wales Argus:

Just as pleasing for Amond as the goal was the three points. It was a first home win since January 19 for the Exiles and he conceded that recent performances have been below-par.

“It’s been a decent season for us,” he said. “You only have to look at where they were this time last year.

“But as players we’re a little bit disappointed because we know how good we can be and we know we’ve let ourselves down a little bit in the last 10 games.

“We owed the fans a performance after the last few weeks.

“There was nearly 4,000 here again and the performance last week wasn’t great so credit to the fans for coming out again.

“We want to finish as high in the league as possible and the gaffer has set us a target of getting the highest points total for the club in the Football League so hopefully we can get a run of wins going.”