NEWPORT County AFC are set to shuffle their pack for Tuesday’s home clash with AFC Wimbledon after a disappointing defeat to Cheltenham Town.

The Exiles were superb in beating Oxford United at Rodney Parade last Tuesday but looked drained on the heavy surface as they lost 1-0 to the Robins on Saturday.

Ashley Vincent’s scrappy winner midway through the first half was enough to give the visitors all three points and County struggled to force their way back into the game.

Assistant manager Jimmy Dack blamed ‘tired legs’ for the defeat and said the squad would be rotated in the coming weeks.

“It was very disappointing. We were below par,” said Dack.

“We played well on Tuesday and we had an opportunity to kick on but we are very disappointed.

“We’ve got a very disappointed dressing room, a disappointed manager and disappointed supporters as well.

“What went wrong? We were trying. We were knocking on the door but we couldn’t open it up.

“It was an opportunity to kick on but it’s passed us by and we’ve had that all season. We just can’t seem to exploit a situation and we’re hurting.

“The pitch is a draining pitch and after the Oxford game we did have some really tired legs,” he added.

“There will be a bit of rotation going on now because there were one or two who were short.”

The only change to the starting XI against Cheltenham was the return of Andrew Hughes in place of David Pipe but fans can expect more changes this Tuesday.

“David had a bit of fatigue,” explained Dack. “He cramped up in training and he’s our captain so we wanted to protect him but we hope he’ll be OK for Tuesday.”

Harry Worley will be available again after he completed his two-game ban on Saturday and Christian Jolley should be fit after going down with a sickness bug late last week.

“Wimbledon are on a bad run and we seem to do well under the lights here so we’ll give it our best shot again,” he said. “That’s all we can do.

“We need to give the supporters a lift but they’ve got to give us a lift as well so it’s a double edged sword.

“They want to come here and see goals. They’ve paid good money and we understand that. But we want to see goals as well and it’s not for the want of trying.

“I’ve got to drive home for two and a half hours now thinking about the game,” he added.

“The supporters have been great for us all season and we need them to stick behind us.”