Baker absence prompts Newport to ponder options

Newport County will be without defender Matt Baker for Saturday’s League Two home game with Port Vale.

Baker is captain of the Wales Under-21s and again links up with Matty Jones’ squad, who are preparing for their Uefa Euro qualifier against Iceland in Reykjavik on Tuesday.

Versatile Baker, who moved permanently from Stoke in the summer after two loan spells at Newport, has been part of a defence which will again be missing club captain James Clarke, who is sidelined for a month with a quad injury.

Baker played every minute of Newport’s 2-1 home defeat by former manager Mike Flynn's Cheltenham Town in their opening Bristol Street Motors EFL Trophy game on Tuesday night.

Young defender Nelson Sanca was a half-time substitute and could be a candidate to replace Baker as Newport look for a fourth consecutive league victory.

Sanca, 17, made three league appearances at the end of last season under previous boss Graham Coughlan.

Dafydd Williams, Newport’s assistant coach, said after the Cheltenham reverse: "We will regroup, we will analyse this game and then focus on Port Vale. We have plenty to think about.”

Cardiff loanee Kieron Evans put Newport ahead before young keeper Jacob Carney was shown a red card just before the interval.

Cheltenham took advantage of the man advantage to score second-half goals through Harrison Sohna and another Cardiff loanee, Joe Colwill – his third goal against Newport this season.

Williams said former Manchester United youngster Carney and others would learn from his straight red, having hauled down Manni Norkett on the edge of the box.

“We all need to learn from it. The set-play has gone in, we are not really set up for the second ball even though we have enough players to deal with it and we haven’t," he added.

“So he has been let down by a couple of his colleagues as well, so it works both ways.

“We are all here to learn. Jacob will certainly learn from that, as should the others [over what happened] leading to that red card.”

Carney, who joined from Sunderland in the summer, will serve a ban within the competition, so will be available for the Vale game.

First-choice keeper Nick Townsend, who took over from Carney last night, is also available. He has previously seen international action for Antigua and Barbuda, but remains in Wales in this window.