NEWPORT County AFC defender Ryan Inniss is setting his sights on a goal-laden end to the season after finally netting his first for the club on Saturday and making amends for his penalty shootout miss against Salford City.

The 6ft 5ins centre-back headed in the equaliser against Bradford City and produced a man-of-the-match performance in defence after Scot Bennett’s winner to ensure County earned three precious points.

It was the perfect response to the crucial penalty miss in the Leasing.com Trophy semi-final, when Inniss blamed himself for the Exiles failing to make it to the Wembley final.

Reflecting on the Salford shootout, he said: “I was positive about the situation, I felt like I played well in the game and I wanted a penalty. If I had shied away, I would have blamed myself more.

“I stepped up with conviction and missed. It was a poor penalty and I felt like I’d let the lads down and let the club down.

“But I got rid of that the next day, I picked myself up and I was extra pumped to try to make a contribution [against Bradford].

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“I feel like I can offer a lot more in the opposition box and hopefully I can go on a [scoring] run now,” he added.

“I was almost trying to hard [to score] before.

“Someone of my stature and size and the way I attack the ball, I should be getting five or six [goals] a season.

“So, the longer the season has gone on, I’ve been [desperate to score].

“I’ve had the chances and I feel like I’ve been letting the lads down a little bit.

“I’ve been snatching at things and trying to take the net off and then the one that hits me goes in.

“Hopefully I can relax now and try to nick a few more. I’ll definitely be pushing myself to try to contribute more for the team.”

Inniss was grateful for the support shown to him by the fans at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

“Most of the time you’re zoned-in on the game but you do hear those kinds of things and it’s great,” said the Crystal Palace loanee. “I wanted to repay them.”

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The Exiles are 15th in the table after Saturday's victory but they can climb to 10th with a win at Grimsby Town tonight and Inniss wants to reward the travelling fans at Blundell Park with another three points.

“We’re feeling positive now and we’ll be confident heading up there,” he said.

“We know we can put the ball in the net and we know we can defend in these conditions.

“We’ll be up for the fight and we’ll be ready for whatever they throw at us.

“There’s still a lot of points to play for and we want to kick on,” he added.

“The team did it last season and we had a run at the start of this season so we know we can do it.

"It’s all about belief and we’ve definitely got the belief in the dressing room.”

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