Oliver Greaves believes Newport County have to get “back to basics” to arrest their drop in league form.
After three consecutive wins in League Two, Newport have suffered consecutive heavy defeats – 4-1 at home to Port Vale and 4-0 at Swindon last Saturday.
Greaves provided a timely morale booster by coming off the bench to score the winner in Tuesday’s 1-0 EFL Trophy victory over West Ham United Under-21s at Rodney Parade.
As Newport prepare to return to league action at third-placed Barrow on Saturday, Greaves believes the performance in midweek is a blueprint to follow.
He said: “We spoke about it in detail, just getting back to basics really, getting the basics right – running, beating your man, coming away from the on-the-ball side of stuff.
“I feel we did that [against West Ham] so hopefully we can push on in the league now and get back to basics.”
Former Sheffield United Under-21 forward Greaves had a loan spell at Barrow five years ago.
“They are well known for the hard-working side of things, they have started well,” he said.
“It will be a tough test but one we will be ready for and hopefully we can get back to winning ways.
“We knew it wasn’t good enough [at Swindon], it was a bit of an embarrassing first half on Saturday. We came away from the basics, focusing too much on the ball and forgetting to win our battles.
“We got back to the ‘brilliant basics’ [against West Ham] as they say, and it wins you games of football.”
Greaves, 24, is relishing his return to the professional game having left the Blades aged 20 following injury.
He dropped out of professional football, having spells at Dover Athletic, Buxton and Spanish outfit CD Almunecar City.
But it was his prolific goalscoring form for Northern Premier League side Mickleover which earned him an opportunity to return to the full-time ranks with Newport in the summer.
“I’ve had a couple of years out of football with knee injuries, but I always believed in myself and backed myself to get back up to where I was,” he said.
Greaves, who netted on his Newport debut in the 3-2 season-opening defeat at Cheltenham Town, still has to monitor his knee problem.
He said: “I just need minutes. I started off the season with a goal and from that high I had a couple of injections in my knee. So it’s just building that fitness back up now and any minutes I can get.
“I have known that for a few years now. It’s a case of managing it. But at the same time I just want to give everything I can.”