Exiles will make a late call on Wales Under-21 star Matt
■ NEWPORT County will make a late call on whether key defender Matt Baker is ready to face Colchester United this afternoon – just two days after returning from international duty in Turkey.
The central defender (pictured), who is on loan from Stoke City, only flew back from Antalya on Wednesday after playing for Wales Under-21s in a friendly against Morocco Under23s on Tuesday night.
The 21-year-old missed last Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Barrow having played the full 90 minutes the night before when the Welsh youngsters beat Lithuania 2-1 at Rodney Parade in a qualifier for the European Championships.
County are already without Ryan Delaney, James Clarke and Josh Seberry due to injury, while fellow centre-back Declan Drysdale is still recovering after a season of setbacks.
Academy graduate Harrison Bright made his first League Two start alongside captain Scot Bennett and Kyle Jameson at Barrow.
And the Exiles will carefully consider whether Baker is ready to take on Colchester, with another game coming up on Monday against Crawley Town in Newport.
“We haven’t seen him this week,” said assistant manager Joe Dunne. “He played at Rodney Parade on Friday, flew out and played three quarters of the game.
“He will have a fixture pile-up. We will see how he is and assess whether it’s something that has come too quickly because it’s a Friday rather than a Saturday.”
Dunne and manager Graham Coughlan will also have to decide whether goalkeeper Nick Townsend is fit to start after he was replaced by Jonny Maxted at half-time in Cumbria because of a groin strain.
“We have managed Nick this week and expect him on the grass today,” said Dunne ahead of yesterday’s training session and overnight stay in Essex.
“He’s another player that will assess but Jonny went in and did very well, so we have competition.”
County start the weekend in 11th place in League Two, four points behind seventh-placed Crawley with seven games remaining.
Colchester are 22nd and only one point above the bottom two, but have lost only two and drawn eight of their 11 games under new manager Danny Cowley and his assistant and brother Nicky.
“This weekend is going to be tough,” said Dunne, who represented Colchester as player, coach and manager.
“A lot of people wouldn’t have expected them to be where they are, and a lot of people wouldn’t have expected us to be where we are. It’s an important weekend starting with Friday.
“[The new managerial team] are vastly experienced. You can see from the results they’ve had – they have a way of playing, they’ve increased their aggression and increased their opportunity to stay in games a lot better. That’s evident with a lot of draws.”