NEWPORT County AFC captain Scot Bennett has revealed that he and Abdoulaye Meite managed to shut out Plymouth Argyle on Saturday without talking to each other.

Ivory Coast international Meite is unable to speak English, despite playing for five years in the Premier League with Bolton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion, and Bennett’s French is also extremely limited.

But the pair formed a superb partnership to earn a 0-0 draw at Plymouth in Saturday’s FA Cup second round tie and could be paired together again tonight as Stevenage visit Rodney Parade in League Two.

“It was my first time playing with Abdou and it was good,” said Bennett.

“I’ve not really spoken to him a lot because he struggles with English but I thought we did alright.

“We formed a good partnership and we looked solid.

“Oui is about all I know,” added the skipper on his French linguistic skills.

“It’s a different challenge for us but we know each other’s names and you call left and right, which he sort of understands.

“And you bond and sort of go off each other. If he goes in I’ll get around him – we both know the position well enough to go around each other and know how to play.”

Paul Bignot and Darren Jones return from suspension tonight but Bennett says he and Meite will not want to make way.

“It gives the gaffer another headache,” he said. “Jonah has been quality since the gaffer has come in but Abdoulaye was brilliant as well so he’s got a few big decisions but it’s ones we welcome back because they’re big players.”

On his own fitness he added: “I was a bit tired towards the end and my hamstrings got a bit tight but I’ll be ready to go again and hopefully get the three points against Stevenage.”

Anything other than a defeat tonight will see the Exiles climb out of the bottom two.

“If we can’t get up for this game when we can get out of the bottom two then we’re struggling,” said Bennett.

“It’s a massive game and we need the three points.

“It’s a chance to climb on everyone else when they aren’t playing and hopefully we can do that and we can start climbing the table because I think the squad is good enough to do that.

“We worked hard to get out of the bottom two and then to lose two games on the bounce and go back in it was a hard one to take on the chin.

“But it’s something we’ll look to put right on Tuesday and then we’ll look to kick on because I think we’re good enough now and we’ve got the structure now to climb the table.”