Barker: ‘We will treat Newport County the same as Sheffield Utd
Crawley Town manager Richie Barker has warned he is treating tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match at home to League 2 club Newport County as seriously as any league game.
He wants to progress in the competition and sees it as the one most possible to win.
However he may be forced to make changes to the side because of illness and injury affecting Billy Clarke (knee), Mike Jones (sore ribs) and Kyle McFadzean (cold).
Managed by former Tottenham player Justin Edinburgh, he is also aware Newport are more than capable of causing a shock as they did when they beat Championship club Brighton 3-1 in the Capital One Cup.
Barker said: “It’s an opportunity for us to win another match and out of all the cups if you are honest it’s the one you have the most chance of winning. So we’ll be treating it as seriously as any league game.
“After Tuesday we don’t have a league game for 11 days so it would be a shame if we sign off with a defeat or a poor performance after all the work we have done in the last few weeks, so it is important.
“The Brighton result is one I’ll be reminding the players of and we’ll be treating Newport with as much respect as Sheffield Utd away.
“We’ll be doing the same homework, the players are preparing the same way and will have the same amount of information.”