Newport County have signed Brentford midfield player Reece Cole and he goes straight into their squad for Saturday’s League Two match at Crewe Alexandra.
Teenager Cole, a 19-year-old product of the Brentford Academy, made his Bees debut in their 3-2 Championship win at Nottingham Forest last season.
He has signed a three-year deal with Brentford through to 2020 and has joined Newport on loan until January.
“Reece offers good competition in midfield,” said County manager Mike Flynn. “I’m looking forward to see what he can do and to him fighting for a place in the starting line-up.”
Newport opened their League Two campaign with a 3-3 draw at Stevenage, while they won 2-0 at League One Southend in the Carabao Cup during midweek.
Flynn could be without defender Scot Bennett, who has a 50-50 chance of recovering from injury in time to face Crewe. He went off with an ankle injury during half-time at Southend.
“It’s touch and go with Scot, if I’m honest,” said Flynn. “He might make it, but whether I start with him is a decision I’m going to have to make.
“He’s a little bit sore, but it’s not as bad as we thought it might have been so that’s positive news.”
County had to reshuffle their playing formation at Southend after Bennett went off and Flynn said: “We’ve worked on the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 system in pre-season and we felt comfortable.
“We can adapt because we’ve also worked on 3-5-2 and 3-4-3. The players are familiar and comfortable with those different combinations. I’ll go with what I think suits us better on the day.
“I don’t want to be stuck playing one formation and the players certainly don’t want to be stuck playing one formation either.
“Players win you games. You can have the best tactics, formations, training sessions, but if the players don’t deliver the goods then nine times out of ten you lose the game so it’s really important to be able to adapt to any situation.”
Newport will again be without injured players Marlon Jackson and Ben Tozer.
Newport County, probable: Day, Pipe, Demetriou, O’Brien, Wilmott, Butler, Rigg, Dolan, Labadie (capt), Reynolds, Nouble. Subs: Bittner (gk), Bennett, White, Williams, Jahraldo, Cole, Owen-Evans, McCoulsky.
