AFTER BACK-TO-BACK victories in cup competitions, Newport County AFC aim to return to winning ways in League Two tomorrow and manager Michael Flynn wants to start another long unbeaten run at Rodney Parade.

Wins over fellow fourth-tier sides Cheltenham Town and Grimsby Town have seen the Exiles safely through to the second round of the Leasing.com Trophy and the FA Cup over the past fortnight.

But the focus shifts back to the league this weekend and the visit of struggling Oldham Athletic to Rodney Parade provides Flynn’s men with an opportunity to climb the table.

County have been beaten in their last two games in League Two, at Colchester United and at home to Salford City, and they lost further ground when last Saturday’s trip to Grimsby was postponed.

That has seen them fall to ninth, although they are just a point off Northampton Town in seventh and six points behind leaders Swindon Town with two games in hand over both.

The 2-1 defeat to Salford was County’s first at home in the league since February and Flynn wants to put that right as quickly as possible.

“We’ve got a fantastic home record and it’s one I want to continue,” said the Exiles boss.

“We go into every game trying to win, but we love playing at Rodney Parade.

“The fans make it a very noisy and intimidating atmosphere for the opposition and long may that continue.”

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Flynn is looking forward to locking horns with Oldham boss Dino Maamria, who was Graham Westley’s assistant at County in the 2016-2017 season.

“I got on well with Dino,” he said. “We’ve had a few messages talking about the good old times!

“He has his teams very organised and they’re very competitive. He’s going to want to get one over on us, it’s as simple as that.

“And not just because it’s us, Dino is a winner. He’s very passionate and he’s somebody who is going to relish coming here.

“He’s somebody who wants to stand up and be counted and that’s how he tries to get his teams performing.”

Midfielder Josh Sheehan is suspended this weekend but right-back Danny McNamara is available again after returning from international duty with the Republic of Ireland under-21s.

“I had no right-back on Wednesday night [against Grimsby] and I thought Robbie [Willmott] did very well there,” said Flynn.

“He was really the only one I could play there.

“Dom [Jefferies] is somebody who came into my thoughts and if he’d turned up for training on Monday instead of going to education, he might have been in.

“He’s a lovely kid and if he keeps doing well, I’ll give him a chance. Him and Lewis Collins are the only two [youngsters] who are at that level at the moment where they could be involved on a regular basis, they could be on the bench or they could start.”

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