MATCH PREVIEW: Newport County v Swindon

Swindon Town begin life under Jody Morris with a short trip across the Severn as they face Newport County in League Two. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam previews the League Two clash.

Morris arrived at Swindon on Tuesday, three weeks after Scott Lindsey had departed for Crawley, and is now set to take charge of his first match as a senior head coach.

The former-Chelsea assistant manager said that he has been pleased with what he has seen from his squad so far, but that it will take time for them to learn his system.

He said: “It is a good group here and I said to them today before we started that I have been really pleased with their application.

“It is never easy when a new manager comes in and sometimes the messages are different to what they are used to, but I have been really pleased.

“There are a lot of things that we need to get better at, but as far as application is concerned, I can’t fault them.

“You can’t give an information overload in the space of three or four days, I would like to see certain things that we have been talking about, but as far as influence is concerned you just want to see that they are looking to take things on board.

“I know full well that they won’t be able to play exactly how I expect them to play straight away, but they haven’t been asked to do certain things so you may have some players who surprise you.

“A lot of the time this season they have been letting people have the ball in a mid-block, but you can only really get where I want them to be if you train like it, so mid-season is not ideal, but needs must.”

Morris also said that he was fully aware of the threat The Exiles could pose to his team, but that much of this week had been devoted to getting the players to understand his system first.

He said: “Most of the messages this week have been about us, although touching on a few things today that are going to be a little more relevant to Newport.

“It looks like they are going to be playing with wing-backs, a three at the back, and two up top.

“They look like they are ready to compete, they look like they like to get after the ball, so even more so we need to make sure that people being put under pressure and have easy options to get out.

“That being giving them a bigger opportunity to keep the ball or find a way to hurt them if we can.

“I know what type of game it is going to be going there, but at the moment the focus is more swaying towards what we do.”

Newport are on a tough run at the moment, having not picked up three points since a 2-1 win at Crewe Alexandra on 2nd December, although they have drawn four of those six matches.

Swindon also came out on top in the reverse fixture at the County Ground, as Luke Jephcott’s goal early in the second half proved to be enough for a 1-0 win.

Town also managed to win at Rodney Parade last season, 2-1 with Jack Payne scoring as well as a Finn Azzaz own goal, and that was Swindon’s first win in South Wales since 2014, another 2-1 win with Jonathan Obika and Andy Williams being the goal scorers.