Newport County boss Peter Nicholas is stepping up his search for a new striker in the week that Bristol City come to Spytty Park.

Nicholas, who has already clinched deals to bring Roger Freestone and Kevin Aherne-Evans to County, has been on the lookout for a front-man since releasing Sam Bowen at the end of last season.

And with the Bristol City game approaching on Saturday, Nicholas confirmed that fans hoping to see a new striker are likely to be disappointed.

He said: "We are working hard on bringing in a striker and it is an area that we have looked at, but at the moment we are just focused on Saturday.

"We had our first training session at the weekend and have had another one yesterday, where we are looking at fitness and getting the players back into the swing of things.

"We train again tomorrow and then we will look at the team for Saturday." County have been linked with several strikers in the past few weeks and Nicholas recently made an enquiry regarding Andover front runner Justin Bennett.

County were told in no uncertain terms that any move for the prolific Wessex League striker was a non-starter and Nicholas has already started looking elsewhere.

He explained: "I have seen quite a bit of Justin and think he looks like a good all-round option, someone who could do something for us and I had also heard he might be available. But when we enquired about the boy we were told he was not for sale and we can't really do much about that other than look elsewhere."

An intriguing option for Nicholas is Kurt Nogan, the former Cardiff City striker. Nogan is currently without a team and trained with County at the weekend as he looks to secure a future at the club.

He is set to continue training with Newport and could feature in the game with Bristol City.

Nogan, who has played for Cardiff and Preston in a lengthy League career, has physical prowess and a fair goal record, so he could well provide Nicholas with the robust forward he is looking for.

Another former Bluebird, midfielder Jason Bowen, is also training with County and Nicholas is known to be a big-fan of the player, who can play anywhere across the midfield or in attack.

Midfield player Andrew Mumford is not currently training with Newport.