‘YOU’VE got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative’ according to the old song that could have been written with football managers in mind.

And Newport County AFC boss Warren Feeney is attempting to do just that – despite starting the season with two defeats that have stretched the Exiles’ winless streak to 13 matches.

County have been beaten 3-2 at home by Mansfield Town in League Two and MK Dons in the EFL Cup, with the winning goals conceded in the 93rd and 90th minutes respectively.

But Feeney is trying to look on the bright side as he prepares his team for today’s league trip to Leyton Orient.

“Obviously we’re disappointed but we don’t look too much into it,” he said.

“It’s early days and looking at results up and down the country there are a lot of teams in a worse position that us.

“We’ll take the positives – we’ve scored goals and we just need to shut up shop at the other end.

“We’re taking the game to teams and we’re getting in fantastic positions,” he added.

“I looked at the stats of the last two games and we’ve just got to learn to manage the games when we have a little bit of a blip.”

Feeney is delighted that three of his midfielders – Jack Compton, Joss Labadie and Mark Randall – and striker Marlon Jackson have got on the scoresheet so far.

“They’re a new group of players,” he said. “It’s only their second competitive game together but there are positive signs there with three midfielders scoring already, which is a big thing.

“I like to talk about the positives and the positive is that three midfielders scored and our striker, and we still have big Jon [Parkin] to come back [from suspension].

“The good thing is we’re scoring goals and we know what we’ve got to do to stop conceding at the other end.

“We’re scoring from set-plays, which we didn’t really do last season, and our striker scored so we just need to try to tighten up a bit.”

And Feeney is convinced that the team can iron out those defensive errors.

“It’s individual mistakes and we’re never going to sustain the way we play for 90 minutes but you’ve got to learn to manage the game,” he said.

“We’ve just got to keep working and go back to basics. I love watching the Italians. I love the way they defend and we need to take little things off them.

“We’ll work on the training ground and I have no doubts whatsoever [that we will improve].”

Compton and Lenell John-Lewis miss today’s match due to injury and Parkin serves the third match of his three-game ban.