Exiles face tough month ahead (From South Wales Argus)

Exiles face tough month ahead

11:32am Friday 5th February 2010

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NEWPORT County boss Dean Holdsworth insists his squad is ready for a gruelling month of travel as the race for promotion to the Conference gets serious.

The Exiles face an arduous month after tomorrow’s visit from Welling United, where they will rack up the miles, and hopefully the points, with a string of away trips, six of their next eight games all on the road.

County travel to promotion hopefuls Eastleigh on Wednesday, February 10, before another long journey to Chelmsford on February 13. It’s then another trek, this time to London to face Hampton and Richmond Borough on February 20, with a fourth successive away day at Worcester City on February 22.

The Exiles close out the month with a home game against in-form Braintree on February 27, before yet another midweek trip, to Basingstoke, on March 2, with a visit to Weymouth on March 6.

With such a tricky spell of fixtures, boss Holdsworth admits he is ignoring the old mantra of taking each game as it comes.

“To be fair, we’re already planning on picking certain players for certain games, there is going to have to be an element of horses for courses from us,” he said.

“I’ve made a big point about needing every member of my squad and everyone will see that in the next four or five weeks.

“We have a number of very tough away games and this is a very important part of the season.

“We are planning on using certain players in certain games and, of course, we are even preparing for the possibility of losing a game somewhere along the way. “We’ve only lost once all season, we’ve won six in a row in the league and the squad is fit and full of confidence.”

The Exiles have been boosted with the return of midfielder Wayne Turk, he has been absent for personal reasons.

“Wayne has had a really tough time recently along with his family, we are thrilled to have him back, the boys dedicated the win at Bromley to him and he is in contention for Saturday,” Holdsworth said.

“Nathan Davies is also knocking on the door again and Takumi Ake is three or so weeks away.

“It’s great to have everyone fit and raring to go, we feel good about the toughest month in the season.”

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