Match preview: Latics v Newport County

The Exiles are bottom of League Two having lost 11 of their 16 fixtures, including their last game, which was against Shrewsbury Town, the next worst team in the league when they met last Saturday. This means only one thing to Latics fans of a certain vintage.

The new manager bounce is only statistically real over five games, not the first one. And the new man was only announced yesterday, which means he’ll have had no chance to get to know his own players, let alone his opponents.

The new man is Christian Fuchs, who won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016 and made 78 senior appearances for Austria. He only recently quit playing and had been making his way in US soccer as assistant coach of Charlotte FC under head coach Dean Smith, former boss of Brentford and Aston Villa among others. Fuchs also founded and ran an organisation that provides sports scholarships in women’s and men’s soccer.

You could say that the appointment is a surprise (why would he go to Newport rather than stay on his US soccer pathway?), but that’s to underestimate the pull of the English football pyramid. There are but 72 head coach / manager positions in the Football League, and they are very much coveted. Ask Paul Scholes or Harry Kewell, both of whom have UEFA Champions League winners’ medals. Fuchs is declaring his interest in a bigger job by taking the Newport County one. He’s obviously not shy of a challenge.

Latics will expect to win this game Fuchs or no Fuchs, bounce or no bounce. Newport have been absolutely wretched this season (although, anomalously, they sit one place above Latics in the form table of the last six league matches). They have a decent enough midfield, including Leicester loanee Sammy Braybrook, plus the rated pairing of Kai Whitmore and Cameron Antwi, but the supporting cast is very suspect.

For Latics, Ryan Woods is available for selection after his one-match suspension and will surely come straight back into the side for either Josh Hawkes or Kai Payne. Latics are at their best as a collective, but Woods’ composure gives the side a more assured feel.

There is a certain amount of clamour among Latics fans for both Mike Fondop and Kane Drummond to start tomorrow after the impact they made when they came on late against Crewe Alexandra last week. As Micky Mellon knows, having an impact towards the end of a match doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make the same inroads from the start of one. As always, your guess is as good as mine until 2pm tomorrow when the teams are announced.