Under-18s Preview | Newport County (A)

Argyle Under-18s return to Youth Alliance League action on Saturday when they travel to face a Newport County side they have already faced this season.

Earlier in the year, Argyle drew 1-1 with the Exiles in the Youth Alliance Cup, but have been on a strong run of form in the league, winning five games and drawing one, since then.

Head Coach Jamie Lowry believes that his young Argyle side can continue their unbeaten run and further solidify their place near the top of the South league table with the Christmas break nearing.

“We’re looking forward to getting back into league action,” Lowry told Argyle TV. “I think we've got two league games left before Christmas, so the boys are looking to put six points on the board and finish strongly in the league before the Christmas break. 

“Newport are always hard-working, competitive and well organised. They'll have a go at us and have a couple of players that can really hurt us. I think, for us, it's about doing the things that have got us success recently: being competitive, working hard, getting our press and our strategy right, then working out how we can utilise our strengths and weaknesses to be successful.

“It’s important to not go away from what’s getting you success. In possession, we need to get our players that can hurt people on the ball, get people running forward, and get our striker in between the sticks so he can score goals. It's all those real key details, that we talk about and being consistent with, is again what we're looking for. 

“We'll have to work out if they're going to be aggressive on the press or if they're going to sit off in the mid-block - and then obviously that brings different challenges.”

With an under-17s game earlier in the week, managing workload and training times has been a key feature for Lowry and his side this week, but with a heavy opening few months to the schedule, it is nothing different for the Greens.

Speaking on Thursday, Lowry said: “Today, we'll just manage our legs. We had a session, but it wasn’t the highest intensity session that we put on. It was more detail-based. Tomorrow will be more detail about the game, how we're going to build and press, and the finer details to be ready for Newport. The boys are in a strong place and looking to continue that on Saturday.”