Saturday's performance was diappointing but there are a few things we ought to bear in mind ahead of the rest of the season.

Newport were good. I'm sure they're intent on a promotion push. On Saturday they retained possession well and gave the player with the ball passing options. The ideal tactics for the conditions. There have been comments on here that City looked tired, probably because much of the game was spent chasing long balls and then trying to win it back from the opposition.

Althogh Newport were well on top all three of their goals could be put down to individual defensive errors. Tim Wooding is yet to recapture the form he showed last season and Shane Wardley, whilst looking good going forward has made one or two errors, which, unfortunately for him, have resulted in goals being conceded. Additionally Martin McNeil's extended 'trial' period meant that Saturday's first choice back four have hardly played together as a unit in pre-season. Personally I would recall Richard Skelly at left-back, just to stabilise that side of the defence. I also think Jack Wignall looks comfortable at right back which at least gives us options in that position too.

In his limited time on the pitch Che Wilson was neat, tidy and composed. On Saturday we desperately needed somebody in front of the back four happy to receive the ball from the defenders and provide service to the wide players and the strikers. We didn't see enough of him to suggest he could do all of that but early impressions were good.

Matt Clements got through a lot of work, the quality of his final ball wasn't always the best but hopefully that will come once he gets a decent run in the side. His pace could prove to be an asset, he needs to be given the ball in the right places to exploit it.

Adam Wilde had an unusually quiet game. When you're up against one of the best sides in the division you need your best player to be on top of his game. There was a brief glimpse of what we can achieve when he combined well with Darren Collins only to end the move with an air shot which just about summed up his afternoon.

Let's not get too despondent after one game, we've got a very tough start. We could do with grinding out a couple of points this week and letting the team settle into the new season. The tactics didn't suit the conditions on Saturday. We had a couple of half-chances that we failed to convert and we were punished for individual defensive errors by a very sharp attack. There's nothing there that can't be worked on and improved. Against some other teams in the division we might have got away with a better result. The fact that we didn't at least gives us an early opportunity to look at what was wrong and act on it. With the players we now have at our disposal there's no reason why we shouldn't be looking forward to improvement on last season's showing.

On reflection, I can't help thinking that I barely noticed the presence of Nightingale or Hayes on the pitch. This suggests to me that there may be more truth in certain people's view that Batch is a long-ball manager than I originally thought.

Clements made a couple of nice runs and I believe will grow into the DML and be an excellent signing.

But on the whole, almost every Newport player looked better than his City counterpart, which is a little worrying.