SKIPPER John Brough insists his under-fire teammates are ready to make the Spytty Park faithful proud when they take to the field for tonight's FAW Premier Cup final with The New Saints (kick-off 7.10pm).

Brough, an inspirational figure for the Exiles in the past year, has seen his side's promotion push suffer a severe dent with back-to-back Conference South defeats to Eastleigh and Havant.

The manner of the losses have left manager Peter Beadle fuming with his side and threatening to make wholesale changes, but Brough is determined that this current group of players can still have a great season - starting tonight.

He explained: "No-one knows how hard we've taken the last two defeats, we were going great guns and now we've made it hard for ourselves to get into the top five.

"Hard, but by no means impossible, but for now all of our focus needs to be on tonight's game, it's a fantastic opportunity for this great club to win silverware.

"We need to show people we can roll up our sleeves and grind out a win, our defensive play needs to improve, individual mistakes are costing us dearly and we need to remedy it.

"But we have great players like Jason Bowen and Richard Evans who can make things happen in attack, we can't wait for the game and I expect the fans think the same.

"We know we've let the supporters down in the last two matches but tonight our team spirit will come to the fore and we will show our true colours.

"I couldn't or wouldn't guarantee that we will win this game, but I do guarantee we will produce a performance to make our supporters proud of us.

Brough admits the players are aware of the financial implications of tonight's game (£100,00 to the winners, £50,000 to the runners-up) but insists lifting a trophy is the only thing on his mind.

Many of the Exiles - including former £3.5million striker Dean Holdsworth - have never won a trophy and that provides an extra incentive according to Brough.

"To lift a cup, to be winners, to have earned the right to do a lap of honour with the trophy, these are the most important things to us," he said.

"We are an experienced squad but a lot of our players have never won anything, so this means a huge amount to us.

"After tonight we will concentrate on fighting for promotion and putting a good run together, but for now it's all about tonight, we are ready to give it our all and we know we can bring the trophy to Newport."

l BBC2 Wales will screen the game live and local singer Holly Holyoake will sing the Welsh national anthem before kick-off.