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Newport County boss James Rowberry "pleased" with pre-season so far

15 July 2022

Club News

Newport County boss James Rowberry "pleased" with pre-season so far

15 July 2022

Ahead of the weekend's pre-season double header, Newport County manager James Rowberry expressed his pleasure at how the off-season is going so far.

In terms of matches, the Exiles are halfway through their pre-season with three matches played and three to go before the League Two opener at Sutton United on July 30.

A 7-0 win at Undy was followed up by a pair of 3-0 wins, or a 6-0 overall, in two 60-minute games against Hungerford. The club's latest friendly was a 2-0 defeat at Championship outfit Cardiff, but the boss was pleased with the test the Bluebirds provided.

"There are certain elements that we can better at, especially in transition from attacking to defending which showed in the goals we conceded [on Wednesday], but there's a reason for pre-season games and it's our third game with a totally new group - we've had eight new signings.

"Overall I'm pleased with [pre-season so far], and I've got to remind myself sometimes that my expectations are with Cardiff who are a Championship club, and we're in League Two so we've got to remember where we're at, so I was pleased with what we achieved Wednesday night.

"With regards to playing higher opposition, we get tested more defensively so it tests our shape in what we do and we've been working on that in the week and I've been especially pleased with it moments of the games, we'll only get better in the work that we'll do."

Pre-season so far has seen two sets of XIs get 45 minutes each in the Undy and Cardiff fixtures while the Hungerford games saw the players get an hour.

Weston-Super-Mare and Torquay on Friday night and Saturday afternoon respectively will see two seperate teams travel to each match with the squad getting a full 90 minutes.

On how he's prepared his squad this summer, Rowberry said: "I'm pleased with the attitude and application in what we're trying to achieve. We're trying to prepare them in the best way we possibly can and everybody's been really focused in what they've tried to do going forward.

"It's our progression and how we tried to periodise the pre-season so we've gone for the 45s and the 60s and the 90s. It's a gradual building to these two 90-minute games against Weston and Torquay."

 


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