Newport County boss targets big improvement away from home

After beginning the new League Two campaign with a 2-2 draw at home to a much-fancied Mansfield Town team last week, County face their first test on the road at Cambridge United tomorrow.

Flynn has a perfect record as a manager against the U’s with six successive wins since December 2017, including three at Abbey Stadium.

The Exiles won 4-1 in the Carabao Cup and 3-0 in the league in Cambridge on their way to the play-off final last season.

But Flynn believes they will have to record more victories away from Rodney Parade this time out if they want to make the top-seven again.

“I hope we do improve the away form,” said the manager.

“It was only six wins away last season [in the league] and we need to turn the losses into draws and the draws into wins.

“I know that’s easy to say, but we’ll be looking to win more than six games away this season.

“If we want to be around the top seven then we need to do that.

“We need to defend better and not give teams a goal start. There’s no formula. It’s just down to cutting out the errors.

“We need to start bright, take our chances and not let any sloppy goals in like we did last weekend,” added Flynn.

“You can’t have a 15-minute period like we did straight after half-time. It’s something that the boys need to learn from.”

Mark O’Brien is available again after missing out through suspension last week and he could return in central defence.

“He comes back into the mix and I’ll have a look at it and have a think,” said Flynn.

“Nobody’s guaranteed their place. If they think they can turn up, not put in the effort in training, have a couple of bad games and still be selected – that’s not going to happen.”

And, despite that recent record against Cambridge, Flynn knows his players cannot afford to perform poorly this weekend.

“It means absolutely nothing,” he affirmed.

“It’s going to be a really tough game. I’ve got the utmost respect for Colin Calderwood and his staff.

“I think Cambridge have vastly improved this season with the players they’ve brought in and with Colin having had a bit of time to settle in.

“They got a point with 10 men last week [at Bradford City] so you know they’re organised.

“Colin has signed some good players. I like the right-back Kyle Knoyle, who was at Swindon, and they’ve just signed Marc Richards who is an experienced player at this level.

“And they’ve got people like George Maris to come back in, so it’s going to be tough and if we’re not at it we’ll come away with nothing.”