PLAY-OFF final goal hero Christian Jolley should be fit to play against Aston Villa under-21s tomorrow after missing the last two friendlies.

The man who fired Newport County AFC into League Two with the opening goal against Wrexham at Wembley in May is raring to go again.

He missed this week’s 3-3 draw against a Reading XI and the 2-0 win at Pegasus Juniors with a hamstring problem.

“I had a slight hamstring niggle and we didn’t want to take any risks for 45 minutes here or there, but fingers crossed I’ll be available for tomorrow,” he said.

“I think everyone is ready to get going now. It’s been a long pre-season and it’s been tough but we’re all feeling good and can’t wait to get started.

“Villa should be a good test for us because they have a lot of lads our age who are performing week in week out in the Premier League and it would be good to go up against them.

“Hopefully they bring a decent side down and we’ll see how we compare to them.”

And just six days later is the big kick-off at home to Accrington Stanley, a day the whole squad is relishing.

“Kicking off the season at home will be a great occasion,” added Jolley.

“The surface at Rodney Parade is looking a lot better than it was at the end of last season and it should be a fantastic day.”

And Jolley believes that the Exiles have the squad to cope with the loss of last season’s top scorer, and fellow Wembley goal hero, Aaron O’Connor to injury.

“The new signings have settled in well,” he said. “We’ve got strength all over the pitch and even though we won’t have Aaron initially we have Chris Zebroski, Danny Crow, Conor Washington and myself to try to fill that gap.

“That is the whole point of having a squad because injuries happen and we know we have the strength in depth to cope with that.”