PADRAIG Amond believes his Newport County AFC teammate Josh Sheehan is the best player in League Two so far this season and, after combining to see off Scunthorpe United on Saturday, the pair are setting their sights on Crawley Town tonight.

Amond opened the scoring against Scunthorpe with his sixth goal of the campaign but it was Sheehan who stole the headlines as he netted his first goal in 11 months to seal the 2-1 win.

Goals have been the only thing missing for Sheehan so far this season as he’s excelled in a more defensive role in the heart of the Exiles midfield.

Manager Michael Flynn has been badgering the former Swansea City youngster to improve his shooting and Saturday’s superb curling effort from 20 yards was just reward for a highly-impressive start to the season.

“It’s about time I finally scored because the gaffer’s been getting at me about hitting the target,” admitted the 24-year-old.

“I want to get more goals into my game. I know I have been playing a bit deeper [this season] but I played a bit further forward [with Scot Bennett also in midfield on Saturday]. That was the plan, and I scored.

“I do have a [goal] target, but I’ll keep that to myself,” he added.

“I want to score as often as I can because I want to help the team and, as midfielders, we want to chip in with goals and not just leave it up to Jamma [Jamille Matt] and Podge [Amond] like we did a bit last year.”

South Wales Argus:

Flynn feels Sheehan has not got the credit that he’s deserved this season but the former Wales under-21 international is not bothered by that and he feels he can still improve.

“I don’t mind going under the radar,” he said. “If I keep playing like I have [I’ll be happy] but I want to play better again and reach new targets.

“The gaffer keeps picking me so I must be doing something right and I just want to keep going.”

Amond, meanwhile, has no doubts about the midfielder’s qualities.

The top scorer told iFollowExiles: “Josh Sheehan has probably been the best player in the league so far.

“That’s massive credit to him because he’s reinvented himself as a different type of midfielder to what the County fans are used to seeing.

“He was more of a number 10 but now he’s dropped deeper and is an all-round midfielder. We see his quality day in and day out in training, now it’s transpiring onto the pitch week in and week out.

“At the minute, he’s the best player in the league. It’s great to have him on our side and the goal he scored was unbelievable.

“We see him do that in training so it wasn’t a surprise for us. The only surprise was that it took him this long to score a goal like that.

“He’s been brilliant, credit to him, and hopefully he can keep those performances up.”

Read more: Newport County fans can inspire us to victory again, says Padraig Amond