Sunday Special at Rodney Parade
It’s a Super Sunday at Rodney Parade as Newport County AFC take on Exeter City in the Sky Bet League 2 with a 3:00pm kick off.
Newport County AFC are hoping for home relief after 2 tough away matches at Mansfield Town and Morecambe. County will be looking to bounce back having dominated the game at The Globe Arena for the opening hour before the controversial decision by the referee to dismiss Tom Naylor.
The FA dismissed the appeal for Tom Naylor on Thursday so the loanee Derby County defender misses out Sunday with a one match ban.
Ismail Yakubu is back in contention having missed the previous 2 fixtures with a thigh injury whilst Ryan Burge is still recovering from an ear infection. Andy Sandell is unavailable due to a slight hamstring strain.
On loan keeper from MK Dons Ian McLoughlin continues in goal for the County as Lenny Pidgeley and Jamie Stephens step up their rehabilitation.
Justin Edinburgh knows that home advantage in the next two games could make all the difference: ‘We play Dagenham & Redbridge Wednesday and that is one of our games in hand, we are looking forward to being in front of our fans again and playing home. Exeter City will be a tough game but players are coming back into contention and they are raring to go for Sunday.’
Exeter City haven’t won in their last 6 games since they beat Southend United on the road and Manager Paul Tisdale knows they are in a relegation battle lying just one place and 3 points above the relegation zone.
Defender Scot Bennett told the official website of Exeter City that their fate is in their own hands with 10 games to play but was disappointed last time out against Northampton:
'We have a lot of six-pointers coming up – we’re playing a lot of the teams around us and it’s all in our hands,” said Scot. “If we can get the win at Newport, we can kick on from there and use that confidence to go into the games against the likes of Accrington and Bury and make sure we pick up points in those games.
They are the games that we need to be winning and start picking up points so that we can stay away from the drop-zone. If we can dominate teams like we did against Northampton in the first 50 minutes and then also put the ball in the net, then I don’t think we’ll struggle.
But we need to make sure we can score those goals and keep the goals out too – again against Northampton it was a silly goal to concede and they only had two or three chances. From there they could afford to just put people behind the ball.'
Tickets are available on the day but you can save yourself £2 per ticket buying in advance. http://www.newportcountytickets.co.uk/