Richie's Verdict On Newport County Promotion Push

Swindon Town manager Richie Wellens is impressed by Newport County’s promotion push in League Two.

Wellens and his players welcome County to the City Ground on Saturday and he says: “Newport are organised at the back and very strong.

“Their wing-backs are energetic and when they lose possession, they’re a back five, but when they have the ball, they do push forward.

“Jamille Matt is a big presence up front and they do play off him a lot and get runners going, while Josh Sheehan is a good midfield player.

“They are up there for a reason because they have been very consistent, but if we are on top of our game, we can cause them problems.”

The Exiles are fourth in the table and Swindon are 12th with ambitions of pushing closer to the play-off positions.

Robbie Willmott, Matty Dolan, Keanu Marsh-Brown, Tyler Forbes and Joss Labadie are all in Newport’s squad after recovering from injury.

“Sometimes we’ve only had six on the bench and only two subs who can come on and really make a difference,” says manager Mike Flynn.

“It will be good to have a strong bench.

“We have a tough set of eight games now. We have to be at full strength and on our game.

“We play Swindon, Wrexham, MK Dons, Lincoln, Forest Green. They’re all tough games, but we go out to win all of them.

“I just hope we keep it going for the fans and the players because with all the hard work they’ve put in they deserve something at the end of it.

“There’s a lot of hard work still to do and hopefully we’re up to it.”

Newport’s next eight matches:

December

Saturday 8 v Swindon Town away

Tuesday 11 v Wrexham home (FA Cup)

Saturday 15 v MK Dons home

Saturday 22 v Lincoln City away

Wednesday 26 v Forest Green Rovers home

Saturday 29 v Crawley Town home

January

Tuesday 1 v Stevenage away

Saturday 5 v Port Vale home

League Two – top five

Dai Sport