Priestley Farquharson to add to Newport's defensive headache

Centre-back Farquharson Tweeted after the blow in the League Two win against Bolton that his campaign was over.

However, the 24-year-old January recruit from Connah’s Quay Nomads has made a remarkable comeback and will be in the mix for the race for the play-offs, although he won't feature at Exeter tomorrow.

"We've had some good news on Priestley and he might be back sooner than we thought,” said Flynn. "He might make one or two games before the end [of the regular season].

"It was three weeks ago and they said four to six weeks. It was an unlucky injury but a fortunate one because if it was one of the other ligaments he was probably looking at surgery.

"It was only the one ligament and we were able to get him on the road to recovery quickly.

“That's why they should think before they tweet! Hopefully, and I mean this in the right way, we don't need him.”

Dolan is back from concussion for the vital trip to Exeter, who will overtake the seventh-placed Exiles with victory in Devon.

The 28-year-old has been the star of the season since moving back from midfield to the heart of defence.

However, County produced a fine display to beat Crawley on Tuesday with Liam Shephard, usually a wing-back, and Mickey Demetriou either side of Scot Bennett in the defensive three.

Aaron Lewis has been in fine form on the right and Ryan Haynes provides balance on the left, while Anthony Hartigan shone in midfield.

It leaves Flynn with the tempting prospect of going for the same again at St James Park.

"Matty is available and it's a decision that I've got to make about whether he comes back in,” said the manager, who will make a decision on whether to include targetman Ryan Taylor in his matchday squad after Friday training.

"It's a big decision because he has been very good this season but everybody played well the other night against Crawley."

In response to supporter Liam Jones’ Twitter plea to @argusoncounty for him to name an unchanged team, Flynn replied: “Fans have that platform to voice their opinion and it's not the worst opinion that I've heard, and it was asked in the right way.

“He's got a bit of substance behind it - that's quite a good Tweet.”

Exeter will be waiting to exchange team sheets just before 2pm to see who gets the nod for County but they will still be pondering what shape they will play.

With Shephard, Bennett, Dolan, Lewis and young forward Lewis Collins, the Exiles have the ability to play a variety of formations.

“With the Cambridge game we had to freshen things up and they said to us afterwards that they did not have a clue what we were going to do,” said Flynn, who played Shephard in a back four and moved Scot Bennett into a midfield man-marking role.

“Mark Bonner said that he had watched our last game and what a waste of time that was. I picked the team to win the game – and we should have won it.

“The reason why we do certain things is that we think it can upset the opposition and that it will work against the way that they play.”

County kept changes to a minimum during the first half of the season when it was only the forwards that changed.

“There's a little bit of cat and mouse, it's a bit of a chess game, because we hadn't been on a consistent run of form,” said Flynn.

“If you are on a consistent run a lot of the time it looks after itself but we were searching for a few new formulas.

“But on Tuesday they were very good – the first half was one of the best halves that we have played this season.”