Jardim Emphasizes Confidence for Newport County Amidst Poor Form

Nelson Jardim has encouraged Newport County to maintain their confidence despite a recent string of poor results, noting that even top-tier teams can be affected by losses. Newport has secured only a single victory in their previous eight matches across all competitions, a period marked by six defeats. Furthermore, the team has accumulated just four out of a possible eighteen points in League Two as they get ready to host Grimsby Town, known for their strong away performances, at Rodney Parade this Saturday. The manager of the Exiles, Jardim, acknowledges that a lack of confidence could be influencing his young squad, which has also been impacted by injuries. Jardim stated, “Confidence is a huge part of football,” adding that his team is currently 15th in the league standings with 19 points, trailing the visiting team, which holds the last play-off spot, by five points. He continued, “Even big teams can lose their way. Look at Manchester City who have still got good players, the best manager in the world, have their way of playing, but the results aren’t coming – and part of that is confidence, because they’re not playing badly.” He further explained, “My task is to make sure we keep our confidence. The players know what we want and need to do, we just have to get everyone thinking the same way which can be the hardest thing to do.” Jardim highlighted recent matches in which Newport began strongly but subsequently faltered, citing the 2-1 loss at Tranmere Rovers last weekend as an example. He commented, “It’s a factor and we can see that, the way we start games well and then like at Tranmere we lost our way a little towards the end of the first half.” He added, “We went 2-0 up against Peterborough [in the FA Cup] and against Reading [in the EFL Trophy] we were OK for the first half hour but we lose our way.” Jardim concluded, “It is the experience of keeping that confidence and trusting the way we should play every ball. Sometimes events don’t go our way in a game and there is a feeling that goes around the team that we’re not in control. But in reality we just have to keep doing what we were doing.”