Newport County welcome lead leaders to Rodney Parade for final game of 2022

 For the last time in a very eventful 2022 Newport County welcome league 2 lead leaders Leyton Orient to Rodney parade in a vitally important game. 

The visitors are formidable opposition for County as they currently sit top of league two with 52 points from 22 games. Famously Newport ended Orient's 10 game unbeaten league run earlier on in the season. Since that game Leyton Orient have only lost 1 game in the league and that came against our boxing day opponents AFC Wimbledon. Away from home Friday's visitors are top of the away form table picking up 23 points out of a possible 30 away from home. A few of the many things that makes Friday the toughest test of the season are the fact that defensively Orient are by far the best team in league 2. So far this season in 22 games they have conceded 12 goals. 4 less than the next fewest. They also have the most clean sheets than any teams in the league. A formidable task but one we've been able to beat before. 

One key thing to keep in mind going into the game is the fact that we have had an extra 24 hours to prep for the game compared to the visitors. We played on boxing day against Wimbledon and Orient played on Tuesday lunchtime against fellow promotion chasing side Stevenage which was live on Sky Sports. 

Monday was the first game in 2 weeks for us since the 1-0 defeat against Doncaster, a game in which we played really poor and the 2 week break in games didn't help the performance on Monday. We looked as if we had a bit of ring rust in the first half but we came into in as the game went on. All in all a great result considering Wimbledon are unbeaten in their past 9 and are one of the most in form sides in any division in the EFL at the moment. 

Newport will be without centre back James Clarke who has been out for a few months now. Also we will be without  It will be tough for Graham Coughlan to go without making any changes with 3 games in the space of 7 days he will surely be looking at his squad to freshen the up things. Monday we seen the first start since the start of August for Striker Offrande Zanzala. I think we will see him again Friday but I'd like to see him line up along side Omar Bogle. On look back in amber we said that those two would compliment each other in there style of play and when we seen the link up between the two at the start of the season it was something that looked really encouraging. 

I think we will squeeze a 1-0 win. It will be tough but we've done it before and we look like we have defensive solidity and stability with a back 6 of Day in goal and Norman Drysdale Farquharson Mickey D and Aaron Lewis there. The best thing is for county fans is that one of those players are 2 of those players are over the age of 30, Mickey D and Joe Day. This is so encouraging for us County fans as this back line can only get better. We've seen Priestley Farquharson and Declan Drysdale come along way in such short amounts of time which against makes good viewing for fans. Also don't forget to follow us on twitter @Absoutecounty and on Instagram @absolutely_county