Rowberry happy to leave home as Exiles look to ring changes

JAMES Rowberry will probably be happy to take his side away from Rodney Parade tonight after Newport County slipped to a sixth successive defeat on home turf at the weekend.

A Carabao Cup first-round clash with Championship side Luton Town amounts to a bit of a free hit, and the County boss intends to ring the changes.

Rowberry is still scratching his head after seeing former manager Michael Flynn leave his old stamping ground with a 1-0 win at the weekend to keep Walsall flying high at the top end of the League Two table.

He may have been “bamboozled” that his team didn’t get anything out of a game in which they enjoyed 61 per cent of the possession and had 13 shots compared to Walsall’s three, none of which were on target.

The fact it was an own goal that made the difference on the day just made the defeat even more galling.

But having lost star striker Dom Telford during the summer, Rowberry has to find someone to replace the goals he scored. County have scored just four goals in their last seven games.

“I said to the lads before the game, at half-time and all week that we had to be brilliant at the basics. We were for a period until against Walsall until the lead-up to the goal,” said Rowberry

“We conceded from a set-play and it was soft. We didn’t defend it well enough and that was the difference in the game.

“I am bamboozled that we have not got something from that game. They had three shots all game and we had lots.”

Among the expected changes tonight will be the return of goalkeeper Joe Day, full-backs Aaron and Adam Lewis and central defender Priestley Farquharson.