Newport vs Walsall preview: Darrell Clarke set to make changes to avoid injury
Walsall manager Darrell Clarke is set to make changes to his side for the trip to Newport County as he insists he needs to be ‘careful’ with overloading players.
After ending their losing run with a 2-1 victory over Forest Green Rovers on Saturday, the Saddlers now travel to south Wales tonight.
The reverse fixture in August ended 0-0, and as Clarke targets back-to-back wins, he admitted changes will be needed to his side to stave off injuries.
“I have to be careful, I’ll have to make changes on Tuesday night,” he said.
“I can’t afford players to be out for long periods of time.
“People think it’s me tinkering – it’s not. A lot of the time you have to be cautious with players that are coming back from injury.
“I’ll need to freshen it up a little bit on Tuesday and have a look at that next project. But it’s certainly not me trying to be clever – I know people sometimes get the wrong end of the stick with what I do and what I try to do.
“I don’t always get it right by the way.
“Newport have a really dodgy pitch, if seeing it on TV is anything to go by.
“Flynny (Michael Flynn) does a cracking job there and we know we’ll have to head a lot of balls out of our box.
“Long throws on each side, we know we’ll have to have our tin hats on.
“That’s not being negative towards Newport at all because they can play some good stuff as well.
“We’ll try to win every game.
“I don’t imagine we’ll have too many fans down there on a Tuesday night.”
Left-back Cameron Pring put in an excellent showing against Forest Green, twice clearing the ball off the line and keeping Birmingham loanee Odin Bailey quiet throughout the match.
Clarke heaped praise on the young Bristol City loanee after the game, while highlighting the need to ‘pick up’ players after a poor showing.
“I thought he (Pring) was excellent after shockers against Carlisle and Morecambe, but he knows that,” he said.
“He’s as honest as the day and I love that about players.
“Rory Holden was Forest Green’s best man in the first 45.
“I told him that we’ll go get his man-of-the-match award, but Rory Holden has been excellent for me in the last two or three months. That’s football, we’ll pick them up. These are young boys and you keep working with them and if they do that they’ll come out the other end as stronger players.”
Pring, who has had injury concerns this season, seemed to take a knock towards the end of Saturday’s win, but Clarke confirmed he should be available for tonight.
“He’s gone soft,” Clarke joked. “He’ll be fine.”
The team are set to be without striker Rory Gaffney, captain James Clarke and left-back Callum Cockerill-Mollett, who are all injured.
