Shephard 'buzzing' with Newport return

Liam Shephard says he is "buzzing" to have returned "home" after scoring on his second debut for Newport County.

The defender - who made 52 appearances for the Exiles during the 2020-21 season - signed a one-year deal with the Exiles last week following his release from Salford City.

He was immediately thrust into the limelight on Saturday, starting and scoring as David Hughes' side maintained their unbeaten start to the 2025-26 campaign with a 2-1 win at Crawley Town.

"I'm buzzing. We've been speaking pretty much through all of the off-season. It was frustrating at times but we finally got the deal done," he told BBC Sport Wales of his return to the club.

"It makes sense to come home after four years. I'm just happy.

"I feel like when I was here last time, it was such a good group and I didn't really want to leave but there were other circumstances.

"People can say what they want to say but they don't know the real reasons to it - that's between me and the people in charge at the time.

"I'm just happy to be back and hopefully we can try and do something similar to that this season or maybe next season - let's see."

The victory over Crawley means Newport have collected four of the six points on offer in League Two so far - while they also progressed into the first round of the Carabao Cup having beaten Barnet on penalties in the preliminary round.

Having finished 22nd under Nelson Jardim last term, Hughes is eyeing significant progress this season.

And Shephard - who was part of the Newport side that reached the fourth tier's play-off final at Wembley just four years ago - says the club can aim high once the new-look squad has had sufficient time to gel.

"Anything can happen in League Two. Morecambe for example, when we played them, no one expected them to be at the top for so long," added Shephard.

"The boys have only been together for four or five weeks. The more games they play together the more understanding you get and I think you saw a lot of good patterns of play today.

"Building those relationships can hopefully lead to good things.

"The boys need to be willing to improve in every game and every training session and if that's the mindset we have, we could go wherever we want to go."