SCOT Bennett believes tomorrow’s opponents Exeter City can be an inspiration for Newport County AFC as they look to get their League Two campaign back on track.

County have made headlines in the FA Cup after beating former Premier League champions Leicester City in the third round and they have a fourth-round trip to Middlesbrough to look forward to next week.

But the Exiles have lost five of their last six games in the league to drop to 13th in the table and have not picked up three points since November 27.

Michael Flynn’s men will be aiming to bounce back from last week’s stoppage-time defeat at Crewe Alexandra when they take on Exeter at Rodney Parade tomorrow afternoon.

And Bennett, who spent seven years at Exeter from 2008 to 2015, says County can take inspiration from his former club’s recent revival.

The Grecians were second in the table in mid-October but a run of eight games without a win saw the drop to ninth by December 8.

Three successive wins meant Matty Taylor’s team were back up to fifth by Boxing Day.

A defeat, a win and a draw in their last three games mean they are in eighth place, level on points with seventh-placed Forest Green Rovers, as they head to Newport this weekend.

“Exeter will be another tough test for us,” said Bennett. “I know a lot of their lads and the manager Matty Taylor as well and they have a strong team.

“But we can look at them because they had a poor run not so long ago and dropped off the pace and now they’re right back up there.

“The league is really tight this year and we know that if we can put two or three wins together then we will be right back in the mix.

“We believe in ourselves and what we want to achieve for the rest of the season.”

Taylor, who made four appearances for County after being signed by Terry Butcher in 2015, has impressed in his first managerial role after replacing Paul Tisdale at St James Park.

“Matty is someone I looked up to when I was at Exeter because he played in the same position as me and I also played with him briefly at Newport,” said Bennett.

“I think he always had it in him to become a manager. He was a leader on and off the pitch and he’s done well at Exeter following on from what Paul Tisdale did there.

“They’re going well and it will be good to see him, but we’re determined to stop their run and get back on track.”

Bennett admits that there has been a lot of soul-searching in the dressing room since last week’s defeat at Crewe.

“We were all very disappointed,” said the 28-year-old. “We had words after the game and we had a team meeting on Monday to discuss what went wrong and how we can turn things around.

“We know our form has not been good enough lately and we need to pick ourselves up and bounce back as quickly as possible.

“We have to be positive because there are still a lot of games to be played and we all believe that we can turn the corner and achieve something this season.

“I don’t believe the FA Cup has been the problem,” he added.

“Football can be really frustrating sometimes and we should probably have won the last three games.

“We’ve been playing OK but we switched off at the end last week and we lost the points.

“Little silly mistakes are costing us at the moment and we need to cut out those sloppy moments and start picking up a few points.”

Flynn has been working hard to strengthen the squad this week and Bennett would welcome new additions.

“It’s a good thing if the manager brings in new players,” he said. “It’s part and parcel of football and our squad is not the biggest so we know we need a few new faces.”

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