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JAMES ROWBERRY: "We've prepared as best we can" going into pre-season closer

20 July 2022

Club News

JAMES ROWBERRY: "We've prepared as best we can" going into pre-season closer

20 July 2022

Newport County gaffer James Rowberry says him and his team have "prepared as best they can" as the Exiles get set for their final warm-up game of the summer on Saturday.

County travel to League One Forest Green on Saturday afternoon with the league season now just 10 days away, with the trip to Sutton United coming on July 30.

Over two days, Newport played two pre-season friendlies on Friday night and Saturday afternoon as two sets of XI got 90 minutes in a match for the first time.

Friday night saw a 4-0 win over Weston-Super-Mare before a 0-0 draw at Torquay United in hot conditions in Devon.

Speaking on the weekend double header, James Rowberry said: "It’s important with the games that we’ve got that there are certain things we can work on in-game and we demonstrated that on Friday night where it was a game where we dominated the ball but we’ve had to defend certain elements.

“Saturday was more like your typical League Two game, a real physical, aggressive game where you’re away from home, you don’t get decisions for you and you have to defend your box for long periods with set-pieces.

“When we have got the ball, we showed glimpses of our quality but there’s always areas to improve and we will do.

"I’m happy to get clean sheets and happy that the lads have got 90 minutes in their legs and then next week we can work on the programme we need to, to get the lads a little bit sharper in 1v1s, 2v2s, 3v3s, to build that element of the game up so when we get in tight areas around the edge of the box we can show our quality."

It's been a positive pre-season for County with Rowberry's first summer in charge seeing eight new arrivals to Rodney Parade, as well as impressive pre-season performances across July. 

“We’ve prepared as best we can, we’ve done everything to the best of our ability as a staff and players, so I’m really pleased with where we’re at," Rowberry continued.

“[Pre-season] has been really good. I’ve learned a lot from the games in pre-season.

"It’s really important we don’t just play games which are easy for us, it’s important we play games that can stretch us and challenge us and it has. We’re mixing the teams up to see where we’re at, and now we’ll start nailing things down a little bit more."


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