NEWPORT County's season starts today with a winnable game at Bognor Regis Town, according to manager Peter Beadle.

Bottom-placed County are five, six and seven points adrift of the three sides just above the drop zone in the Conference South (Carshalton, Hayes and Eastbourne respectively) and trail Maidenhead United by two points, heading into this afternoon's do or die clash (kick-off 3pm).

Beadle realises his side have had no game time to get last week's woeful defeat at Weymouth out of their systems as Wednesday's home clash with Hayes was postponed, but is banking on his team to drastically improve their performance.

For the first time in many weeks Beadle is likely to only be without one injured player (midfielder Lee Jenkins) and he has told his players they must deliver.

He explained: "Today we face a side who aren't going to go up and aren't going to go down, on paper exactly the kind of side you want to face at this stage of the season. "We have shown at Yeading and at Havant that we are capable of winning away from home and we must do that today.

"It makes no difference to me what the sides around us do, because we have to be in charge of our destiny and the only way to do that is to win plenty of our final ten games. "I want nothing more than to start planning for next season in the Conference South and have plenty of plans in place, but we must get out of this mess first."

Beadle is likely to welcome back striker Matt Green following his ankle injury. The front-runner trained twice this week and showed no adverse reaction.

However, one player has shown a big adverse reaction to training this week, defender Terry Evans.

Boss Beadle has decided not to speak out on the matter until after today's game, but the Argus understands Evans has failed to report to four training sessions this week and has not been answering phonecalls from County staff.

Evans was dropped for the Weymouth game, as was Geraint Bater, and both were angry at being left out.

Bater and Beadle did have a row about the issue, though the full-back has since apologised and re-affirmed his commitment to the club.

However, Evans would appear to have played his last game in the gold and amber shirt, though Beadle has included him in his squad for today, whether he turns up is another issue.

Young striker Nathan Bailey, 19, signed by Beadle on Thursday evening after being released by Reading, is likely to be amongst the substitutes.

County (from): Pennock, Bradley, D Evans, T Evans, Hillier, Legg, Bater, Brough, Cochlin, O'Sullivan, Toppar, Bowen, Fisken, Davies, Williams, Hughes, Green, Bailey.