Barry Town United take on Sky Bet League Two opposition on Friday night with Newport County making the short trip to Jenner Park Stadium. This will be the second year running where Town take on The Exiles in pre season, Town came out 2–1 winners last year.
This is both sides final friendly before returning to competitive action next week. Town host Aberystwyth in the Nathaniel MG Cup next Saturday while County head to Barnet midweek in the Carabao Cup preliminary round.
So far in pre season Town have recorded wins over Newport City and Gloucester City. County have had a mixed bag in pre season so far with wins against Weston Super Mare, Pontypridd United, Worcester City and Undy AFC. County suffered a 3–1 defeat away to Torquay United last weekend and narrowly lost 1–0 to a strong Bristol City side behind closed doors on Tuesday.
New County manager David Hughes is no stranger to Barry Town having previously played and managed the club before leaving in 2013. Since then Hughes has gone on to work for both Cardiff City and Manchester United in the academy set ups. Hughes took the job at County in May replacing Nelson Jardim who left the club just before the end of the previous campaign.
Hughes isn’t the only link between both clubs with current Town man Robbie Willmott who made just under 300 appearences for County across 2 spells. Willmott was part of Newport’s FA Cup giant killings which saw County defeat sides like Leicester City, Middlesbrough and Leeds United. Willmott was also a key figure in the County side that forced Spurs to a FA Cup replay in 2018 after drawing 1–1 at Rodney Parade.
Newport have been pretty active in the window so far adding the likes of Michael Reindorf, Ged Garner, Nick Tzanev, Lee Jenkins and perhaps most notably Matt Smith who has 19 caps for Wales. County will be hoping these new signings can help the club kick on from last seasons 22nd place finish in League Two.
Ahead of the game I spoke with Newport fan Oliver Pughe to get a point a view from the County side of things. I started off by asking about new manager David Hughes. Oliver went on to say “From speaking to the new County Manager David Hughes at Newport’s 1–0 win away at Weston, it is important that this pre season campaign allows Hughes to gather a better understanding of his players as well as trying to carry out different tactics that could be used for the start of the season.”
I also asked Oliver about the upcoming season and how he thought County would get on. “Last year was disappointing but with a new manager and some real quality being added I don’t see why we can kick on and have a more comfortable season”.
Kick off is at 19:30 on Friday at Jenner Park Stadium.
Tickets available on the gate or via Fanbase here
Tierre Miller