NEWPORT County defender Ismail Yakubu admits the club need to sharpen up in both penalty boxes, writes Michael Pearlman.

The defender was understandably disappointed after the Exiles’ narrow defeat to Morecambe at the weekend knocked them out of a play-off spot.

"We shouldn't get used to these games against Morecambe there is no jinx or anything, at the end of the day we just didn't defend well enough and we didn't create enough chances in their box,” he said.

"They've scored with their only shot in the whole half and that seems to be our luck at the moment. We aren't conceding too many chances, but the chances we are conceding the opposition are tending to score from.

"We have got to stay focused and try and work hard.

"We had the good win over Wycombe and picked up the late point against Tranmere, obviously it was a great win last weekend but it's always constantly moving in this division, you can't be looking back at your past results and we haven't been able to keep our momentum going.”

Yakubu isn’t blaming the fact Newport have switched from 5-3-2 to 4-4-2 in recent weeks.

"We've adjusted to four at the back, we aren't worried about systems, we just need to perform better with and without the ball and us players need to take the responsibility,” he explained.

"Our attitude is right, we never gave up on Saturday and got enough crosses in the box and were working hard, but unfortunately we weren't getting people on the end of those crosses and didn't have the quality to get a goal.

"Burton will be very tough, we tend to do well against the higher sides, but we won't be daunted by Burton. We ground out results against Wycombe and Portsmouth when people said it would be difficult to go there.

"We've got to try and pick up our performance.

"The spirit is ok, not broken, but the boys are disappointed, we know we can do better and we still have this in our hands, we can change it around if we believe in ourselves."

Tributes to ‘Mr Newport County’ Dai Williams, see page 27.