Newport County eager to keep top scorer Aaron O'Connor

Newport County manager Justin Edinburgh has made keeping out-of-contract Wembley hero Aaron O'Connor a priority as he prepares for life in League Two.

The striker scored Newport's second in Sunday's 2-0 Blue Square Bet Premier play-off final win over Wrexham.

"If we lost him [O'Connor] it would certainly be to a division or two higher," said Edinburgh.

"But with us securing Football League status again, then hopefully we'll be able to secure his future."

O'Connor took his tally to 20 goals for the season with an injury-time strike at Wembley after coming off the bench with 20 minutes to go.

The striker, who joined at the start of the season on a free transfer from Luton Town, says he has no intention of leaving the club.

"I'll have to sit down with the manager and everybody else involved and see what happens," said the 29-year-old.

"But I don't want to be anywhere else."

Christian Jolley put Newport on their way to victory when he broke the deadlock with four minutes remaining.

He joined the club in January as Newport fought off interest from several other clubs - including Wrexham - to sign the 24-year-old from AFC Wimbledon.

Edinburgh said that amounted to "the best £25,000" chairman Les Scadding has ever spent.

Jolley still has a year left to run on his contract, but Edinburgh intends to sit down with a host of out-of-contract players over the next 48 hours.

And the Newport boss also is confident the vast majority of his players are good enough for League Two.

"They've all been probably higher than this and we've got a busy schedule ahead because we've got to try and make sure we tie all these players down going forward," said Edinburgh.

"So I do think this group's capable. We've been consistent - we've been written off all year and we've really been discarded at times and under-estimated.

"That gave us a belief from within and a determination to prove people wrong."

And as he reflected on the events at Wembley, Edinburgh added: "Seeing those faces in the crowd and grown men cry, then you know what it means.

"It's the centenary year, 25 years since we've been in the league and I'm 42 now.

"I didn't believe in fairy tales, but I certainly do now. And it has been a fairytale ending."