The men from Sardis Road are currently fourth in the table and a full 13 points behind runaway leaders Cardiff. Lockyer knows his team have just the slimmest hope of catching the Blue & Blacks. It means the Pontypridd captain is well aware nothing but a victory will do on home turf against an in-form Newport side on Saturday.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead, but we need to put a run of wins together now,” said Lockyer. “We have to look to beat Newport at home and Merthyr away.
“A couple of results have gone our way so we need to take advantage of that. I think we can still achieve second place if we go on a winning run.
“Too many times we’ve talked about performances and we’ve ended up playing well but losing. Newport have been doing really well this season.
“When we beat them down there earlier on this season it could have gone either way. It was a tight game and we came back to beat them at the end.
“It’s always a tight game between the two sides with lots of tries scored no matter where we are in the league. Hopefully it will be the same on Saturday with Pontypridd coming out on top.”
Pontypridd will be going into this Saturday’s crucial clash having not played a game of rugby in a month. Lockyer believes they will use that rest period to their advantage. He said: “We’ve put loads of good training sessions in and the boys have been working very hard.
“It’s been like a mini pre-season, but everyone is looking forward to getting out there on Saturday. I think we can hit the ground running after this long break.
“To be honest we were carrying some boys who had bumps.” Elsewhere, top of the table Cardiff hosts the league’s bottom club Bridgend.
The Ravens are three points off safety and need to start winning to avoid relegation to the Championship while Steve Law’s capital side will be looking to move closer to the title. Second placed Carmarthen Quins will be hoping to close the gap on Cardiff when they welcome 11th placed Ebbw Vale to west Wales while Llandovery host defending champions Merthyr.
Llanelli, who are also in a precarious position, face Aberavon at Parc y Scarlets with RGC 1404 travelling to St Helen’s to face Swansea.
Indigo Group Premiership fixtures
Saturday February 29
Cardiff v Bridgend (2.30pm)
Carmarthen Quins v Ebbw Vale (2.30pm)
Llandovery v Merthyr (2.30pm)
Llanelli v Aberavon (2.30pm)
Pontypridd v Newport (2.30pm)
Swansea v RGC1404 (2.30pm)
