BATH City boss John Relish has revealed he wants Newport County to win every game they play this year, apart from tonight!

Relish will come face to face with the Exiles when his high-flying promoted outfit host County in the Blue Square South at Twerton Park, (kick-off 7.45pm).

It will be an emotional occasion for Relish who spent 13 years as a player and four as a manager with Newport.

Relish believes County and Bath can both challenge for promotion this season and is backing Exiles manager Peter Beadle to be a big success, but for tonight he is focused squarely on getting the three points.

He explained: "I spent 17 years with Newport and obviously the club means a great deal to me, it is a special club and I have fantastic memories and friends from my time there.

"It is not just an ordinary club in my eyes, it is special to me and I hope they enjoy success. I usually want them to win every game, but obviously not tonight!

"It will be a fantastic atmosphere at Twerton Park and I hope we'll have well in excess of 1500 people there, it's a massive game and we can't wait."

Relish believes both Newport and Bath can get into the promotion shake-up this season.

"My directors expect consolidation but the fans think we are still a Conference club and we can look at what Histon and Salisbury have achieved in going straight through the league," he said.

"When the Conference North and South was created Bath only just missed out (along with Merthyr where Relish was at the time) and it's been a struggle since to get through the Southern League.

"Newport are a couple of years ahead of us in development and every manager in the league, myself included, expects them to be challenging for the title.

"I know virtually everyone in their squad and they have really good players, they will certainly mount a challenge, hopefully not tomorrow though!"

Relish enjoys a good relationship with County boss Beadle and is backing him to be a big success in his career.

"Peter is a bright young manager with a big future, I enjoy talking with him and was pleased to hear him say I am the kind of manager he looks up to," he said.

"I thought he handled himself very well after getting sent off against Swansea, he got a big tick in the box from me in the way he conducted himself and used it as a learning experience.

"But it won't be easy to get out of the Conference South, that is for certain. For me, the biggest step up in the football pyramid is from the Championship to the Premiership and the second biggest is from our level into the Conference.

"It's going to be a long hard season for everyone, but tonight should be a terrific occasion.

"I hope to see as many Newport fans as possible, they travel in big numbers and I think it'll be a cup tie atmosphere tonight."