Newport County Players Pay Tribute To Supporter Kieran Sanges

Newport County players will wear black armbands during their Checkatrade Trophy tie against Forest Green Rovers at the New Lawn stadium this evening (7.30pm).

County supporter Kieran Sanges passed away over the bank holiday weekend.

Since Kieran had been diagnosed with cancer the club has been in regular contact with the family and players visited him at Ty Hafan hospice.

Newport had hoped Kieran would be well enough to attend their home match against Chesterfield, but he was not able to do so.

Kieran will be in the thoughts of manager Michael Flynn and his team as they prepare for the match against Rovers.

The home team are playing in the Checkatrade Trophy for the first time following their promotion via the National League play-offs last season.

The 3-1 victory against Tranmere Rovers at Wembley Stadium lifted Rovers into the Football League of the first time in their history.

Forest Green signed 12 players during the close season and allowed the same number to move on. The new boys includes Reece Brown and Charlie Cooper, who moved from Birmingham City, while striker Luke James switched from Peterborough United.

Club captain Liam Noble and Newport-born striker Christian Doidge, a former Barry Town player, both stayed with the newly-promoted Gloucestershire club.

They will be without midfield player Omar Bugiel, who has been selected for Lebanon’s Asian Cup match against North Korea.

Bugiel was among the substitutes in Rovers’ 5-1 defeat v Colchester in their last match and if they name an unchanged starting line-up the team would be: B Collins, Iacovitti, Roberts, Bennett, Laird, L Collins, Cooper, Noble, James, Doidge, Brown.

Newport County are undefeated in League Two and are second in the table.

Manager Flynn says he will make changes to the team who defeated Chesterfield 4-1 at home.

“There will be changes,” said Flynn. “I’ll freshen the squad up and give a couple of fringe players a chance to prove themselves and get some game-time into them and we’ll go from there.”

Newport County, probable: Day, Pipe, Butler, Bennett, White, Owen-Evans, Tozer, Nouble, Rigg, Quigley, McCoulsky. Subs, from: Cole, Bittner, Reynolds, Demetriou, Amond, Labadie, Bennett, Wilmott.

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