Lyons in for County (From South Wales Argus)

Lyons in for County

6:40am Monday 2nd March 2009 in Latest Football By Michael Pearlman

NEWPORT County are hopeful of having a new striker in their ranks when they travel to high-flyers Hampton and Richmond tomorrow night.

Crystal Palace academy graduate Tom Lyons has left Lewes by mutual consent with the Blue Square Premier club enduring serious financial troubles, and has relocated to Cardiff.

The 21-year-old trained with the Exiles on Thursday and travelled with the squad for Saturday’s 2-0 reverse at Hayes and Yeading and is now hopeful a deal will be sorted in time for him to be involved tomorrow night.

His arrival is timely for County, with striker Craig Reid clearly still short of fitness following hamstring trouble – he was substituted at half-time on Saturday as a precaution after feeling cramp.

It will be a tough ask for the Exiles to take anything against the side currently second in the Blue Square South, particularly after being outplayed at Hayes for virtually the entire contest.

“This is the business we are in, we have to pick ourselves up and forget about Saturday and focus on having a good week,” County’s player/coach Steve Jenkins explained.

“They were a good side and it was always going to be hard for us after giving away a bad first goal.

“But they are a quality side, as good as we’ve played this season, and we paid the price for not taking our chances when they came, we have to do that tomorrow.”

Jenkins and manager Dean Holdsworth are keeping an open mind to playing Reid tomorrow, mindful of what impact a further injury setback would have.

“You have to be so, so careful with hamstrings, we can’t rush him and then he’ll tear it and be out for the season, which can easily happen, we have to take it on a game- by-game basis,” Jenkins said.

“We know we are better than we showed on Saturday, and while our form has been poor of late we aren’t panicking at the moment, we have the quality to get back on a good run and hopefully that will start tomorrow.

“It’s a tough place to go, Hampton play five across the back and play for set pieces and are a huge side, but we can compete if we do the basics right.”