TRANFER deadline day passed without any major activity at Newport County AFC but midfielder Adam Chapman believes Saturday’s win at Portsmouth proves the squad is good enough already.

County earned their first victory of the League Two campaign thanks to Andy Sandell’s late winner at Fratton Park.

The only transfer activity at Rodney Parade yesterday saw goalkeeper Simon Thomas leave the club after his short-term contract ended.

But manager Justin Edinburgh was unable to bring in any more fresh faces before last night’s 11pm deadline with any deals dependent on current players departing first.

Chapman is convinced, however, that there is enough quality in the squad to ensure that the Exiles will continue to climb the table after a difficult start.

“On the back of a good point against Burton the pressure was off a little bit on Saturday,” said the 25-year-old. "Nobody expected to get anything at Pompey except ourselves.

“The gaffer didn’t put any pressure on us. All he wanted was a good performance and even if we hadn’t got the win I think we would have been happy with the way we performed.”

New goalkeeper Joe Day enjoyed a relatively quiet debut and Chapman also praised fellow midfielders Lee Minshull and Mark Byrne.

“Joe was pleased with his debut," he said. "I thought the three in front of him were excellent as well and me, Minsh and Byrner were pretty solid in midfield.

“We’re three very different players but we’ve got a good understanding going on and we have to because we’ve got players like Yan (Klukowski) and Flynny ready to come in.

“And we’ve got Max Porter when he’s fit as well so there are plenty of options in the squad for the gaffer.”

And Chapman says Sandell’s display proves that the team spirit is good, even amongst players not in the starting XI.

“There’s never any question or any doubt about Sands’ attitude. No one will ever doubt that,” he said of the club captain who came off the bench to hit the winning free-kick on Saturday.

“Obviously he’s disappointed not to be playing at the minute, as everyone would be, but if he gets in the team next week or comes on for ten minutes again you know he’s going to put a shift in for the team.

“I think him and Darren Jones were having a bit of a dispute over who got the goal,” he added. “Daz reckoned he got his big nose on it so it might have nicked off him but Sands deserves it.

“If you put balls into the box like that keepers don’t know whether to stick or twist and centre halves don’t know what to do.

“There was a little bit of luck but there was a lot of quality in there as well but Sands has got that and everybody knows that.”