Johnnie Jackson’s main focus remains firmly on picking up more points at Newport this weekend, but he's also keeping an eye on January transfer additions.
We beat the frosty conditions by switching final preparations to the artificial surface at the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub in Walton-on-Thames, where Johnnie gave his Friday update before immediately heading off to South Wales for tomorrow afternoon’s match.
“There’s lots going on behind-the-scenes,” said Johnnie. “We’re having conversations with clubs and agents - it’s a busy time. We still have our eyes on a couple that we want to bring in to strengthen the squad.
“I’m sure my phone will be going on the way down there - probably tonight! I’ll be touching base with Jamie Johnson and Craig Cope and we’ll be using the weekend to try and have some things in place for the start of the week.
“We’ve had some outgoings, important players up to this point in the season, but they are no longer with us. We feel like they need replacing and I wanted to add a couple anyway. We’re working on it, we’re working hard, but our focus must be on going to Newport and trying to win the game.”
Johnnie will still have a good number of players to choose from, despite Nathan Young-Coombes being the latest loan player to return to his parent club.
“We’ve got a clean bill of health,” said Johnnie. “Everyone has trained this week. We’ve had to modify it for a couple because of the surface that we’ve been on. Certain lads find it tougher to train on this surface. Everyone has got enough training into them though."
The two sides drew at the Cherry Red Records Stadium on Boxing Day, with Newport currently five places and ten points behind us in eighteenth in the League Two table.
“We know we’re in for a tough game there,” added Johnnie. “They are a good side that can hurt you and we are closely matched, based on the previous meeting. We’ll take the game to them and we’ll be going there with the mindset of going for the win, knowing that we’re up against a decent team."
“It was a closely fought game last time and having got ourselves in the lead we felt a little bit hard done by that day. We played 25 minutes with 10 men and they were awarded a really soft penalty that helped them get a point, but it is what it is.”
You can see the full interview with Johnnie below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.