NEWPORT County midfielder Mark Byrne insists the underdog tag will suit the Exiles down to the ground tonight at Roots Hall.

Jimmy Dack’s men are two points outside the League Two play-off berths with four game remaining, but Newport’s toughest contest by far, on paper, is at Southend.

Phil Brown’s side have been in exceptional form since the turn of the year and have lost only two of their last eighteen clashes, including three wins from their last four games.

It’s another to worry even the most optimistic of Exile supporter, but Byrne believes being massive underdogs – County around 3/1 with the bookies to win in Essex – is exactly what they’d choose.

But Byrne isn’t concerned.

“We know now we probably have to go to Southend and win now, we need to be bold and you don’t know what can happen. I reckon two wins and a draw could be enough from the four games for a play-off spot, but you just don’t know,” he told the Argus.

“We’ve got to probably win at Roots Hall, but there is no point us looking over our shoulders or worrying about all the teams around us, we’ve got to be focused on what we have to do. We’ve dropped out of the top seven before this season, but we’ve always managed to get back in it.

“Southend are in great form, it was the same with Bury, but we know we can go to these top teams and get the right result, because we’ve done it before this season and proven it.

“We’ve got to just got for it, these are four massive games and we go there with confidence and believing we can get the win we need.”

Byrne insists the players actually like being written off.

“A result at Southend would be massive, but we still have two home games and it is far from over.

“We don’t mind being written off, whenever we are told we are underdogs we’ve been able to come away with a good result and I can’t see why we wouldn’t be able to do that,” he said.

“It inspires us to be written off, there is no pressure on us at Roots Hall, the pressure will be on Southend. We’ll go there as underdogs and perform.

“We all know what we need to do. We are still going to keep going right until the end of the season.

“The boys still believe, we don’t want to drop out and are determined not to let that happen.”

Byrne admitted County got what they deserved on Saturday as Bury romped to a 2-0 triumph at Rodney Parade.

“Bury were one of the best sides we’ve played all season, we didn’t test them enough and we’ve all got to create more, we lack in the final third,” he said.

“It was a tough afternoon, in the first half we didn’t perform, we didn’t perform well enough.

“In the second half we had a go, it was a lot better, because I don’t know what happened in the first half.

“Once they went 1-0 up they switched to 4-5-1 and we lacked in attack, we didn’t test the goalkeeper enough and made it too comfortable for Bury.”