By Tom Prosser
Newport County will be looking to ease the pain of their play-off final heartbreak by getting their new season off to the perfect start when they travel to Oldham on Saturday afternoon.
Michael Flynn’s side were condemned to another season in League Two after Morecambe were awarded a controversial penalty in extra-time of their clash at Wembley just over two months ago.
Since then, Flynn has had a big rebuilding job to do, he has signed 12 new players to replace the 16 that have left.
“It’s been non stop since the play-off final, it hasn’t been ideal in terms of switching off,” explained Flynn.
“I went down to West Wales and spent four days on the phone.
“It was a blow losing Joss Labadie, Josh Sheehan and Liam Shephard but we’ve got to accept that we can’t always afford to keep everyone.
“It’s always tough rebuilding, but I just hope we’ve got a squad that’s more than capable of competing in this league.
“I think we’ve got a lot more pace in the squad and more options all over the pitch this season. The players who come in have big boots to fill but I’m sure they can do it.”
But Flynn says he is expecting a tough opening match against Oldham who were the second highest scorers in the division last season.
“They’ve got an extremely experienced manager in Keith Curle, who’s somebody I’ve got a lot of time for. I speak to him quite often but I won’t be speaking to him today or tomorrow!
“They’ve lost some players but he’s got a lot of experience of putting a good squad together and they will be dangerous as we saw last season.”
Newport will also have a new captain this season in Matty Dolan, he is looking forward to leading the club both on and off the pitch.
“Certain players aspire to be captains and it’s something that I’ve thought about as I’ve progressed through my career,” said Dolan.
“I like to show those leadership qualities and any help that I can give to the club and the lads, I want to do that and lead by example.
“We’ve got a lot of leaders in our dressing room who will be looking to set an example too but it will be a huge honour for me to be captain of this football club.”
He also won the Sky Bet League Two PFA Player in the Community award last season for his involvement with County in the Community during the Covid-19 pandemic and says the squad will continue to support community initiatives in the upcoming campaign.
“I’ve got involved with a lot of the community activities ever since I signed for the football club,” added the midfielder.
“I’ll continue to get involved with those as a captain and make sure that, as a group, everyone is linked in with that because it’s a massive part of what we do as a club.”
