BARNET'S John Akinde may be the joint top scorer in League Two with 18 goals so far this season but Newport County AFC manager Graham Westley is confident his defence can handle the powerful striker tomorrow.

Akinde has already scored three goals against the Exiles this season, although the first was scrubbed from the record books as a waterlogged pitch forced the teams’ first meeting of the season to be abandoned at half-time in September.

But, with new signings Sid Nelson and Mark O’Brien on board, Westley is not worried.

“Our boys will manage him,” he told fans and shareholders at the club’s AGM on Thursday.

“We’ve got good central defenders so don’t worry about Akinde.

“Let him go and hurt others, he won’t hurt us.”

Westley also believes that the Bees will be a different prospect now that they have lost manager Martin Allen to ambitious Conference club Eastleigh.

“You can’t take Martin Allen out and not take something away, that’s for sure,” he told the Argus.

“No disrespect whatsoever to the people now in charge [but] I played with Martin, I know what Martin is all about.

“He’s got a massive energy, a massive passion for the game.

“He understands the game, he played at an excellent level and he’s a tough competitor.

“He’s shown in the success he’s had at Barnet what a good manager he is.

“He’s won promotion out of League Two previously and he knows what it takes to win games.

“So you don’t lose Martin and lose nothing – you lose something.

“That said, anybody picking up the reins has picked up a good squad of players.

“They’ve got some terrific lads and they’ve just signed the boy [Ricardo] Santos, who I had at Peterborough.

“He’s a very good footballing centre-back with great character and good ability.

“Throughout their side they’ve got players who’ve shown they can get results.

“With or without Martin they’ve got players who can get results.

“And with or without me we’ve now got players who can get results and I’m looking forward to seeing our boys pit their wits against another tough League Two opposition and show what they’re made of.”

Former County goalkeeper Jamie Stephens missed Barnet’s 3-1 defeat to Doncaster Rovers last week after being substituted early in the win at Leyton Orient a fortnight ago due to groin injury.

Michael Gash (knee), Shaun Batt (hamstring) and Ben Tomlinson (quad) are all long-term absentees.

Asked about the threat that Westley’s men posed, interim assistant head coach Henry Newman said: “The number of new signings they’ve made will have freshened up their camp dramatically.

“We don’t really know what to expect from them, to be honest.

“With all the new signings it’s very much us concentrating on our game rather than worrying about them.”