All the facts you need, ahead of Saturday's game against Bristol Rovers at Rodney Parade.
Looking at the visitors
Bristol Rovers have had an extremely good season so far and have a very good opportunity to challenge for one of the automatic promotion places, which they are currently only three points outside. With ten games to go Rovers still have to play four out of the bottom five teams in the league and whilst there are no easy games in the division, they will be hoping to pick up maximum points and overtake Plymouth into one of the three automatic promotion spaces into League 1. Matty Taylor is the one to watch with 19 goals in the season so far, more than double the tally of Rory Gaffney, the clubs second highest scorer who only has seven.
Form Guide
Newport County – LW WDWLWLWD 17 points
Bristol Rovers – WDL LWLW W W W 19 points
Upcoming Milestones
Medy Elito – 1 goal for 25 professional goals
Dean Morgan – 3 goals for 75 professional goals
Tom Meechan – 1 goal for 75 professional goals
Tommy O’Sullivan – 2 appearances for 25 professional appearances
Mark Byrne – 2 appearances for 300 professional appearances
Previous milestones
Scott Barrow v Hartlepool was his 175 professional appearance.
Bristol Rovers’ record against County
Played 3 Won 1 Drawn 0 Lost 2 Goals For 4 Goals Against 6
Saturday 24th October 2015: Bristol Rovers 1 – 4 Newport County (O.G 13’, Ansah 52’, 57’, O’Sullivan 75’)
Saturday 25th January 2014: Bristol Rovers 3 – 1 Newport County (Howe 57’)
Saturday 17th August 2013: Newport County 1 – 0 Bristol Rovers (Sandell 42’(p))
Last meeting
A brace for Zak Ansah helped Newport record only their 3rd win of the season at the end of October when they won the Severnside derby by four goals to one. After beating Wycombe earlier that week the victory for County meant that they lifted themselves out of the relegation zone at the expense of Dagenham and Redbridge and was the second game in a run of ten unbeaten for the Exiles.
Last time out
County played the last of their games in hand following the postponements in January when Hartlepool United visited Rodney Parade with both sides looking for a win to further increase the gap between themselves and the bottom two. It was a relatively unexciting game that finished 0-0 but the point meant that Newport lifted themselves about Morecambe in the table and are now up to 17th, 14 points clear of the relegation zone with 30 left to play for.
The Man in charge
Graham Salisbury is the man in charge for this fixture with his assistants Antony Coggins and Justin Amey. The fourth official is Andrew Fox. Salisbury has been in the middle for one Newport game already this season, the 0-0 draw away at Dagenham and Redbridge in September. He sent off Chris Zebroski last season when Newport lost 2-1 to Stevenage and in the 2013/14 season County beat York City by three goals to nil which Salisbury also took charge of. So far this season he has refereed 29 games handing out 97 yellow cards and 6 red cards.
Around the league (all times 3:00pm)
A.F.C Wimbledon v York City
Barnet v Oxford United
Cambridge United v Yeovil Town
Carlisle United v Wycombe Wanderers
Crawley Town v Hartlepool United
Dagenham and Redbridge v Accrington Stanley
Leyton Orient v Morecambe
Mansfield Town v Portsmouth
Notts County v Exeter City
Plymouth Argyle v Luton Town
Stevenage v Northampton Town