Michael Jolley Pre-Newport County Press Conference

Grimsby Town manager Michael Jolley hopes his side start on the front foot in Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup first round tie with Newport County at Blundell Park (3pm).

The Mariners had their previous two league games, at home to Cheltenham Town and away at Plymouth Argyle, postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and safety reasons, respectively.

And Jolley hopes his side can attack the game from the start on Saturday as they look to progress to the second round of the FA Cup.

Speaking on iFollow Mariners, he said: “I’m very keen. We’ve been down to Chelsea and Crystal Palace this calendar year so that’s a good barometer that we’ve done okay in the cups.

“I expect it to be a tough game, but a good game between two good teams.

“We need to get on the front foot early. An area where we need to do better is scoring first when we’re at home because most of our home league matches we’ve been chasing the game.

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“Sometimes that’s gone well for us but other times it hasn’t, so if we can get the first goal and start the game well I think that will put us in a good position to manage the game.

“And then Newport will have to come on to us but of course they’ll have other ideas.

“We’re at home, we want to attack the game, we want to get the fans off their seats and that’s our plan.

“But we’re playing a team in Newport that has probably had more success than anybody in the lower leagues so they’ll be just as keen as us.

“And then Newport will have to come on to us but of course they’ll have other ideas.”

And Jolley hopes his side can draw inspiration from their 3-1 win over MK Dons in the first round of the FA Cup last season in this weekend’s tie with Newport.

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He said: “They’re a really tough nut to crack, and they have two strikers – Jamille Matt and Padraig Amond – who played for us previously.

“We know it’s going to be a tough game, but I remember this time last year we played MK Dons in the first round of the FA Cup, and we did well in that game.

“So we’ve got a similar mind-set that we’re welcoming one of the better teams in our league but we want to try and take the challenge on.”

Max Wright is expected to return to full training next week, while Luke Hendrie is around two-and-a-half weeks away.

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