CAPTAIN Joss Labadie put a worrying health scare behind him to fire Newport County AFC to victory in midweek and now he’s determined to put a dent in Plymouth Argyle’s promotion hopes.

Labadie was forced to pull out of last Saturday’s match at Leyton Orient after falling ill on the coach on the journey to London.

But he was fit and firing on Tuesday night as his header sealed a 1-0 home win over Macclesfield Town.

“I was travelling down on the coach and had a bit of chest pain,” revealed the skipper as he explained his absence at Orient.

“I went in to see the doctor and it was just precautionary [for me not to play]. When it’s something like that they have to cover themselves.

“But thankfully it was a false alarm and I’m happy to be back.”

Exiles boss Michael Flynn is also relieved to have his midfield general back in action, although he felt that Labadie should have scored more than once against Macclesfield.

“I always think I can do better, but I was happy with how I played and it was nice to get the goal and the three points,” he said.

“The gaffer was moaning at me after the game and telling me I should have had four or five.

“I hit the post with one and the keeper made a good save with another one, but I’m just happy that we came away with three points.

“It’s important to chip in with goals,” added Labadie. “We can’t leave too much pressure on Jamma (Jamille Matt), Podge (Padraig Amond) and Tristan [Abrahams] up there.

“They’ve got a fair few goals between them, but it’s nice if midfielders and players from all over the pitch can chip in.”

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Amond and Matt also had chances to extend County’s lead on Tuesday and Labadie knows they should have killed off the struggling Silkmen.

“We’re relieved to get the win,” he said. “It’s three important points and we’re happy to get the job done.

“We made it hard for ourselves but we got there in the end.

“It’s been an improvement this month, from recent results, and I feel like we’re harder to beat now,” he added.

“At the start of the season we were solid. We weren’t playing the most attractive football but we were getting results.

“Then we had a little blip. But it seems like we’re back on track and hopefully we can progress. We’ve got to take this form into Saturday now.”

Labadie knows that they face a tough test at Home Park tomorrow but he believes County can complete the double over fourth-placed Argyle after beating them 1-0 at Rodney Parade in August.

“Plymouth are one of the favourites for the league,” he said.

“They’re a massive club with a big budget, a good manager and good players so they will be looking to go up automatically.

“We’ve proved that we can go up against them before – we beat them here – so we’ll be looking to take maximum points again and put a dent in their ambitions.”