Darren Sarll expects to come up against a ‘highly-motivated’ Newport County side when Boro visit Rodney Parade on Saturday.

Stevenage go into the game against the league’s bottom side having not won on the road in League Two this season and having failed to score in their past three matches.

However, they did keep a clean sheet at Cheltenham Town on Tuesday evening, their first of the season, and the seven points picked up from their five games in September is an improvement from the four they got from the same number of matches in August.

Newport on the other hand have won just one league game all season, away from home, and this week the club called time on manager Warren Feeney’s spell in south Wales.

It was reported this week that former Bristol City boss Steve Cotterill has turned down the chance to take over the Exiles, who will be led by coaches Sean McCarthy and James Bittner for this weekend’s game.

Asked what sort of opponent he will be facing this weekend, Sarll, who lost his own first game 1-0 at home to Crawley Town in February, said: “The game against Crawley I took over and the dressing room was absolutely rocking. We put in an okay performance and we didn’t get a very good result.

“You can’t predict how the group of men are going to come out. What we can try to predict is how we come out and what we do. If tradition applies their group of players will be highly motivated as they will want to impress their new manager wherever he is, whether he’s in the dugout or the stands.

“Whatever they put out we’ve got to be ready.”

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For a match report after the full-time whistle blows, visit www.thecomet24.co.uk