THE MANAGER

Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to Foxcotte Park to all our supporters for this afternoon’s game against our visitor’s East Cowes Victoria.

East Cowes have had a difficult start to the season, but we know they will provide as stern as test as ever, especially with Alex Smith in charge, who I welcome to Foxcotte Park along with his staff, their players and everyone who has made the long journey over from the island this afternoon.

What a week it’s been! We continued our promotion push with a hard-fought victory over Millbrook. The scoreline may have read 6-1, but we were fortunate at times, after making a great start. Ben Rodwell had to make a couple of crucial saves at 2-1 and we also had to weather the storm with ten men, when Scotty Hassell was sin binned!

Credit to the players as they kept going and took our opportunities when Millbrook were reduced to ten, shortly after Scotty returned to the field. Cooky continued his fine goalscoring form and Mikey Davis completed the scoring with a fine free kick late on.

On Tuesday, we travelled to Folland Sports, who have always made life difficult for us over the last few seasons. This time was a totally different story with the lads putting in one of the best displays of the season. We were dominant from start to finish and perhaps could have had even more than the five goals scored that evening.

Results elsewhere have seen us move to the top of the table and that’s where I want us to stay for the remainder of the season.

Newport’s back-to-back defeats have given us a great opportunity to clinch promotion, which was our number one priority this season after last season’s disappointment.

We still have some way to go, starting with this afternoon’s match, as the Vic’s gave us a tough game last month and we still have to travel to Amesbury, who have picked up form recently and Petersfield, who have taken 6 points off Newport this season and beaten them in two cup competitions. The chasing pack won’t give up the fight and so won’t we.

We would not be in this position without the support of our sponsors and I’d like to welcome them all here today and thank them for their continued support. Hopefully we can put on an entertaining match for you this afternoon. I hope you enjoy the day and evening.

Give them your full backing again this afternoon, and let’s make it six in a row.

Enjoy the game.