Digging for victory – County need snow shifters to help get tomorrow's game on (From South Wales Argus)

Digging for victory – County need snow shifters to help get tomorrow's game on

4:31pm Friday 18th January 2013 in Newport County By Andrew Penman

NEWPORT County AFC are calling on fans to help them beat the weather and allow tomorrow's match against Barrow to go ahead as planned.

With the Rodney Parade pitch playable, the club has requested that fans turn up at the ground at 8.30am tomorrow with shovels to help clear the snow off the frost covers. Free hot drinks will be provided.

And with leaders Wrexham and third-placed Grimsby Town having their matches postponed there is added incentive to get the Exiles game on as they would return to the top of the Conference with victory.

Rodney Parade head of operations Mark Jones said: “We can have a real shot if we get enough volunteers. I’ve got a real feeling we can pull it off because we got the covers on straight after the Dragons game on Thursday.

“The pitch is fine, we just need the support of the fans to clear the snow.”

If the match does go ahead it will be billed as the battle between the best attack and the worst defence in the division, but Exiles boss Justin Edinburgh is warning his side not to underestimate Barrow.

Edinburgh’s men have scored 57 goals this term, while the bottom-placed visitors have conceded 49 times, including six on their last away day.

“On paper it’s the best attack in the league against the worst defence but we see all the time that teams in this division don’t follow the script or listen to what they are supposed to do,” said Edinburgh.

“We’ve seen it this week, Luton go to Telford and fire a blank and Cambridge get beaten at home by Nuneaton, two results that weren’t supposed to happen.

“It says a lot about the division, but our record against teams in the lower half is pretty decent, we’ve got the best form at home in the Conference and we need to continue that.

“But we can’t be complacent, the crowd can’t expect us to just turn up and win 6-0, we need to give Barrow respect, they are fighting and scraping like we were last year and that makes them dangerous.

“The big thing for us at home was to shrug off the disappointment of the Forest Green game, we did that against Wrexham and we know that we’ve come off a very inconsistent month in November and a tough Christmas.

“At the moment we’ve picked it up and it’s the time to go on another run, points are vital at this stage.”

Edinburgh is confident of landing a further player in this transfer window, having made clear his desire to sign a central defender, but he’s worried that County have an image problem.

He added: “I’ve said I want a defender, maybe that’s a mistake because I won’t pay over the odds on wages or a transfer fee and we are getting the tag of being a mega-rich club in the media and that makes it that much harder for us to do things.

“We’d love to bring in one more player to give us a final push but, chances are, it’ll go to the last day of the month.”