PETER Nicholas firmly believes in the old adage: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' The Newport County manager was crowing after his side's top-notch performance at high-flying Chippenham Town and believes their display deserved more than a point.

Some of the football his side played was "excellent", according to the former Welsh international, and Nicholas is likely to stick with the same XI despite ten-goal striker Neil Davis being declared fully fit again. But the boss knows the Exiles can ill-afford to take their foot off the gas.

The seventh-placed Welshmen are in with the Dr Martens Premier League's chasing pack and Nicholas has ambitions to improve on their unbeaten run of five league outings when Bath City arrive at Newport Stadium tomorrow (3pm).

In their remaining 17 games of the season, County only have four clashes with possible promotion contenders - Tamworth twice and Stafford Rangers and Crawley Town in back-to-back home matches.

So, Newport - 12 points behind leaders Tamworth with a game in hand - haven't given up all hope on promotion to the Nationwide Conference next term although it is an outside hope.

"We need to beat Bath to keep up the pressure on the leaders because we're not counting ourselves out of the title-race. We've got to keep on winning and picking up good results, it's as simple as that," said Nicholas

He remembers only too well County's 4-3 defeat in the reverse fixture against Bath at Twerton Park five weeks ago despite being 2-0 up at half-time. He was furious with his men that day as they crumbled when three points seemed to be well within their grasp.

He admits it's revenge time tomorrow against a resurgent Bath.

The next four days could prove to be a crunch stage in Newport's season with victory vital against the Somerset side before Nicholas' men lock horns with Third Division basement boys Swansea City in the FAW Premier Cup quarter-finals.

A home win against the struggling Swans, who haven't won on the road for 10 months, would be a massive boost for the club, both on the playing field and for their bank balance.

"This is a crucial part of our season and I need my players to respond positively," said Nicholas.

"We have been playing very well of late and we cannot allow ourselves to drop those standards otherwise we will come a cropper."

Bath manager Alan Pridham is eagerly awaiting fitness tests on five of his players.

Striker Jason Eaton (back), left-winger Andy Williams (thigh), midfielder Paul Milsom (hamstring), captain and defender Gary Thorne (ankle) and forward Dan Cleverley (groin) are all struggling.

Meanwhile, Nicholas has reported that, Mark Dickeson apart, his squad has a clean bill of health with Scott Walker (flu) and frontman Davis (knee) returning.

Newport County (from): P Mountain, C Collins, S Benton, A Thomas, B Clark, R Ashington, N Davies, M Rose (c), M Fowler, G Shephard, J Eckhardt, N Davis, A Stevenson, S Walker, R Plant, G Jones, J Dupres, J Perry, T Hart

Bath City (from) M Bryant, G Kemp, G Thorne (c), M Trought, F Bennett, I Harvey, P Milsom, J Gosling, A Williams, M Lewis, J Eaton, D Shore, S James, D Cleverley, G Smart, C Honor