HIS penalty king crown restored, Michael Rankine described the triumph over Newport as “a brilliant win”.

Rankine shook off his spot-kick woe from a week before at Kettering, and shrugged off all attempts by Newport to distract him, to rifle home his eighth success from 12 yards this term.

“The win was needed after the draw with Crawley,” said Rankine. “We needed to get three points on the board and it puts us back on target for where we want to be.”

Of the antics of Saturday’s visitors, Rankine said he was just focused on taking the penalty and scoring.

“Normally I make my mind up from the start, but at Kettering I was in two minds and I missed,” he said.

“But it’s not like I was going to crumble in front of our own fans. And I was not worried what was going on behind me. I just decided on where I would put the kick and it went where I wanted.”

Rankine echoed manager Gary Mills’ assertion that the meat of the campaign started against Newport, adding: “This is our little mini-season and we have good prospects. We’ve won one game and we’ve got five more to go.”

Goalkeeper Michael Ingham, whose brace of saves shortly after Jamie Reed put City 2-0 up proved critical, said results rather than performances mattered most now.

“The sun’s bright, the pitches are bobbly and sides get nervous, so it’s all about getting three points from each game,” said the Northern Ireland international goalkeeper. “It is a cliché but you can only take one game at a time and I’m not looking past Tamworth next Saturday.”