COUNTY V RUSHDEN (Today 3pm)

CENTRAL defender Ollie Thorne is looking forward to his first appearance at Spytty Park – six months after he signed for Newport County and four months after he left the club.

The 20-year-old is now on loan at Rushden & Diamonds from Kidderminster Harriers having started the season at County and he admits he’ll have mixed emotions during today’s match.

Thorne was signed by former Exiles boss Dean Holdsworth last summer but never made a competitive appearance for the club.

He was an unused substitute in the first six games of the season and left County in September.

But he’s been following his former teammates’ progress with interest since his departure.

And, after being on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline for Kiddy against County just after Christmas, he’s relishing the chance to renew acquaintances again this afternoon.

“It’s going to be a strange day for me because, even though I didn’t get on the pitch, I loved my time at Newport,” he said.

“There is a great team spirit in the dressing room and I still keep in touch with a lot of the boys.

“I didn’t want to leave,” he added. “I could have sat on the bench and waited for my chance and been part of a team pushing for promotion.

“But I’m the sort of person that just wants to play football and if I’m not getting a look in I’ll move on – that’s why I’ve come to Rushden because I wasn’t getting a regular game at Kidderminster and I expect to be playing every week.”

Thorne believes caretaker manager Tim Harris is the right man to turn around County’s woeful recent form and maintain the push for a place in the Blue Square Bet Premier League play-offs.

“Tim’s a smashing bloke. He’s the guy the players went to when they had a problem so I’m sure they’ll all be right behind him,” he said.

“Dean has gone to Aldershot and Newport are having a tough time of it but it doesn’t mean they’ve become a bad team overnight.

“They have a lot of quality players and every team in this division will go through a rough patch at one stage of the season,” he added.

“Crawley and Luton have had dodgy spells and Wimbledon are having one right now as well so there’s every chance that they can still make the play-offs.

“I’m really looking forward to showing the fans what I can do and I hope they do get back to winning ways – after this weekend of course!”