Nick Townsend back from injury to push Newport's Joe Day

The Exiles will ramp up their preparations for the League Two campaign this week with a friendly against Cinderford tomorrow followed by a final hit-out against Cardiff City.

County get their 2021/22 season under way against Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park on Saturday, August 7 and there will be interest about who gets the nod between the sticks.

Day is back in Newport after two seasons in Cardiff while Townsend was in goal for much of last season, with his efforts earning a new two-year contract.

In 2020/21 competition was fierce between Townsend and Tom King, who is now with Salford, and the same will be the case in the coming months.

However, Day has a headstart over his rival who only returned to training from a niggle at the end of last week.

FIT: Nick Townsend is back in training for County

"It's about building Nick back up to full fitness," said manager Michael Flynn, who fielded teenager Evan Ovendale as Day's back-up at Chippenham last week.

"Once again we have two very, very good goalkeepers for this level, so it's down to them to fight it out throughout the season."

Flynn's squad didn't have long to lick their wounds after the controversial play-off final defeat to Morecambe on May 31.

They returned to pre-season training at the start of the month, played a pair of behind closed doors friendlies against Swansea City and then locked horns with Chippenham of the Conference South.

They won 2-1 in Wiltshire with manager Flynn changing his entire team in the second half and having a look at three trialists, as well as giving minutes to Kevin Ellison while contract negotiations continue with the veteran midfielder.

With the Oldham clash fast approaching, County are getting their game heads on ahead of the tough final friendly against Cardiff of the Championship.

"They have had a hard couple of weeks with the work that they have done in the heat," said Flynn.

"It's a tough time of year but we have managed the workload with the amount of zone five and six runs – the top-speed running – that they are doing.

"The main thing about last Tuesday was to avoid injuries and we also changed things around quite a lot.

"Now we will look to keep a more settled team for longer parts of the game because it's getting closer to the start now."

County are to start the season on the road because of the summer work on the Rodney Parade pitch.

Flynn's side start at Oldham, head to Ipswich in the League Cup and then travel to Mansfield.

A home fixture with Northampton is likely to be reversed then there are games at Tranmere and Salford before Leyton Orient visit Newport on September 4.