FA Cup: Newport County- Plymouth Argyle

Huge, huge incentive for both teams to win this with a televised trip to Anfield to face Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool awaiting the winner, that will be worth circa £600k and also create huge excitement locally and raise the profile of the club. Much has changed since the first meeting which ended 0-0, County who had shown signs of improvement under Graham Westley, which we discussed in some detail have now lost four leagues games in a row, including two at home without scoring and they will enter Christmas bottom of League 2 and four points from survival. Argyle went into that game reeling, having lost three in a row and L2 first place, but they have recorded back to back league wins to recalim that and sit seven points ahead of fourth and with 27 points more than Newport. Plymouth do not leave Devon again after tonight until the New Year game and with only one Christmas fixture this season and such a big prize at stake, they can afford to give this their full attention for the time being and will want to continue to build momentum. Argyle won 3-1 here in the league two months ago.

Much of the recent issues at Argyle were down to lengthy injury problems , but the treatment room has started to clear and Arnold Garita and Nauris Bulvitis who both featured at the weekend are the latest to return to action and Plymouth, who are a big club at this level and who were in the Championship as recently as 2010, should be playing third tier football next season. They are looking to sign County striker Rhys Healey (on loan from Cardiff City) in the January window, he looks to be on his way, or at least going back to City and he might not have the same motivation as team mates and is the only forward with more than a single goal for the South Wales side. Plymouth are expecting 1,200 + supporters to travel up for the game and to put that into context, last County home attendance was sub 1,900 and the visitors should have pretty much 30-40% of the crowd backing them this evening.

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Good Luck.