Hurting Newport County bid to bounce back against Gillingham

The Exiles’ seven-game unbeaten streak was ended 3-1 by Notts County at Rodney Parade on Tuesday and they will look to respond against Gillingham on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

Graham Coughlan’s side are currently in a sequence of opponents that they faced in the autumn.

They have played Swindon (2-1 win home), Walsall (3-0 win away) and Notts, with Gillingham in Newport and MK Dons in Buckinghamshire to come.

A rearranged fixture at Harrogate on February 27, courtesy of the FA Cup, breaks a mirror schedule that would have also featured Mansfield (hone), Stockport (away) and Morecambe (home).

County’s next eight games are against teams currently above them in the table, a run of games that takes them up to the Good Friday encounter with relegation-threatened Colchester at Rodney Parade.

With injury problems easing, Coughlan’s team have put themselves on the edge of the play-off battle thanks to their recent form.

League Two's play-off race (Image: EFL)

The top-seven remains a long shot – and the manager insists the target is 50 points for safety, then beating last season’s 57 that earned 15th spot – with the bookies pricing County at 11/1 to make the play-offs and 30/1 for promotion.

Those odds will shorten if they are still in contention come Easter and the aim is to start another streak this weekend, with encouragement from the end of October.

The Exiles were, like Tuesday, given the runaround by Notts County’s potent attack when they travelled to Meadow Lane.

They were flattered by the 3-0 scoreline in the East Midlands and Coughlan, probably at the lowest point of his tenure, called on his players to fight for him.

County did just that the following weekend when they made the long trip to Kent and took the spoils 2-0 thanks to a pair of Omar Bogle penalties.

The Exiles got their noses in front at Priestfield Stadium and then defended with concentration, spirit and tenacity to earn only their second victory since their impressive August.

County went on to draw with MK, lose at Mansfield then surprise Stockport and Morecambe - a repeat of that 10 points from five games would do the trick in the return fixtures.

The Exiles are a better side than they were in October and will be keen to show that Tuesday was just a blip against a strong Notts side.

Gillingham boss Stephen Clemence (Image: Press Association)

THE OPPOSITION

Interim manager Keith Millen was calling the shots for Gillingham when they hosted County at the end of October after the sacking of Neil Harris.

Former Spurs midfielder Stephen Clemence was appointed after that loss and have won six, drawn four and lost five of his 15 league games in charge (22 points, 1.47 per game).

Gillingham were eighth after County’s win in Kent and are now ninth, although they were poised to climb to seventh until Harry McKirdy struck in added time on Tuesday to earn a share of the spoils for Swindon.

They are promotion hopefuls despite being the league’s lowest scorers with 31 in 31 games, although they have scored in all eight league games since their Boxing Day loss to Crawley.

The Gills are underperforming on their expected goals of 40.3 (ranked 13th in the league) and they are the division's leaders for big chances missed with 52 (data from Fotmob).

Clemence’s side head to Newport in reasonable form – like County they have lost one of their last eight league games, totting up 15 points.

It will be a very different challenge to the one posed by the free-flowing, possession-based football played by the Jodi Jones-inspired Magpies.

FIXTURES

League Two: AFC Wimbledon v Morecambe, Bradford v Sutton, Colchester v Accrington, Crawley v Forest Green, Crewe v Harrogate, Grimsby v Doncaster, Newport County v Gillingham, Salford v Barrow, Swindon v MK Dons, Tranmere v Stockport, Walsall v Mansfield, Wrexham v Notts County.