Newport County manager Peter Nicholas likes his teams to play fast, free-flowing, attacking football but he has insisted: "We must tighten up at the back."

Nicholas said: "I do want us to score a lot of goals. I prefer my teams to play an attacking game but we must not let our defensive duties slip.

"We have been conceding sloppy goals and that must stop.

"We have been working on eradicating our defensive lapses in training and the players have responded well in the last two games, where we have picked up two wins."

The Exiles go into tomorrow's Dr Martens Premier League game with Hinckley United looking for their third consecutive success after battling victories against title-chasing Worcester City and struggling Folkestone Invicta.

Their resurgence in form under Nicholas has seen them move up to seventh position in the table and a win tomorrow at Newport Stadium (3pm) would put them right in the chasing pack.

But Hinckley, who haven't won in eight league games, are the draw specialists of the division. They have managed 12 stalemates in total and six in their last eight games.

However, County have a good record against sides from Hinckley, losing only twice in 15 meetings. "We want to keep the band-wagon rolling. It is very important to make it three wins out of three, especially because it's at home."

Nicholas, though, is sweating on the fitness of three key players while two others will definitely miss out through injuries.

Midfield dynamo Nathan Davies is struggling with a back problem while central defensive duo Billy Clark and Jeff Eckhardt will both have late fitness tests on calf and back knocks respectively.

But ten-goal striker Neil Davis (knee ligaments) and winger Richard French (ankle) are definitely out.

Nicholas has called up youth academy duo Ashleigh Gittings, a Welsh Under-17 striker, and defender Lloyd Stone.

Also, youngsters defender Josh Dupres, midfielder Gethin Jones and winger Chris Rogers, all of whom have just returned from a Wales Under-18 schools training camp, are in the squad.

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