JAMES Rowberry is thrilled that he will be sat in the Newport County AFC dugout at Scunthorpe with his normal management team after having a pair of young assistants causing chaos last weekend.

The Exiles boss missed the 4-0 win over Harrogate Town at Rodney Parade after testing positive for coronavirus.

His right-hand man Wayne Hatswell called the shots from the touchline after Rowberry held a final Zoom meeting with his players before the game.

Everything went to plan at the Parade as County returned to winning ways by hitting the front early on through Mickey Demetriou’s penalty and then sealing the win before an hour had been played thanks to goals by Dom Telford (2) and Courtney Baker-Richardson.

Things were a little more frantic in the Rowberry household in the city as the manager, just like County’s supporters for the behind closed doors game, tuned in on iFollow.

“Watching at home when you have two little girls under five years old is quite chaotic,” said the boss, who took over in mid-October.

“I've not got a big mansion where I can lock myself away in a room so they had their iPads for the first half and second half they were sat next to me!

“It was a little bit different to what I am used to on a game day but they were good as gold.

“It was surreal but the game was left in trusted hands with Wayne, Jarred [Harvey], Jim [Hollman] and the rest of the staff.

“It was no surprise that we did so well with the preparation that we had all week. The reaction from the Salford game really pleased me and now we've got to follow that up with our trip to Scunthorpe.”