Newport County play two matches in four days in their quest to fire up their League Two play-offs challenge.

The Exiles take on sixth-placed Coventry City at Rodney Parade on Good Friday before travelling to play Chesterfield on Bank Holiday Monday.

County are aiming to bounce back from just their third home league defeat of the season, against Crewe Alexandra last time out, while the Sky Blues with the intent of firing up their chase for promotion.

Manager Michael Flynn admits the Easter period can be classified as the defining moment of the season for Newport.

“The Easter weekend is crucial for nearly every club in the country,” he said. “Everything could change because its two games over a small period of time. We’ll have a good idea Monday evening of what the season will end up like.”

There are three automatic promotion places available in League Two with the next four clubs going into the play-offs.

Newport can complete a double over Coventry, having won 1-0 at the Ricoh Arena when Brentford loanee Reece Cole netting the matchwinner on that occasion.

The visitors are unbeaten in six matches and only League Two leaders Accrington Stanley have picked up more points than Coventry since February 24.

“We fully respect Coventry as we did against Crewe and as we did against Tottenham Hotspur,” says Flynn.”We do our homework and due-diligence and we’ll make sure that we don’t leave any stone unturned.”

The Exiles currently trail the play-off positions by 10 points ahead of the match, but Flynn’s team are still focused on a top seven finish.

“It’s a mini-season and we want to finish that mini-season as best as we can,” says Flynn. “We want to carry that momentum on to next season.

“We’ve got a better squad than we had last season so there are no excuses really. The players have been fantastic, and they know that if they finish on a high then it’s going to be a really positive season. If they don’t, it will be a very frustrating one.

“We need to hammer home a bit of assertiveness when we’re on top. It’s just about finding the opportunities to take your chances.

“If you go back over the course of the season and see how many times I’ve said that we didn’t kill a team off at the right time then I’d say it’s at-least a dozen.

“That’s where we are at the moment, but the players deserve a lot of credit as well for everything they have done this season.”

Captain Joss Labadie is the only injury absentee for the Exiles. He had the first part of his surgery on Monday, with Flynn confirming that this was a clear success and with no problems observed.

“It went well,” said Flynn. “I spoke to Joss and everything was as expected. He’ll be in next week to plan out his rehab.”

The Exiles manager also talked about Newport’s League Two play-offs chase, saying: “It’s a tough time, a tough league and it’s a challenge.

“We want to put last weekend’s disappointment behind us and we need to improve on that.

“That’s us all as well because we are all in this together – Wayne, Lennie, goalkeeping coach, physio and myself. Everybody needs to keep on improving.”

Other League 2 fixtures on Good Friday (All 3pm kick-offs)

Barnet vs Crewe Alexandra

Cambridge United vs Crawley Town

Cheltenham Town vs Carlisle United

Colchester United vs Luton Town

Grimsby Town vs Stevenage

Lincoln City vs Exeter City

Mansfield Town vs Accrington Stanley

Notts County vs Wycombe Wanderers

Port Vale vs Chesterfield

Swindon Town vs Morecambe

Yeovil Town vs Forest Green Rovers

Newport’s remaining fixtures in 2017-18:

March

Friday 30: Newport County v Coventry City (3pm)

April

Monday 2: Chesterfield v Newport County (3pm)

Saturday 7: Newport County v Stevenage (3pm)

Saturday 14: Newport County v Yeovil Town (3pm)

Saturday 21: Barnet v Newport County (3pm)

Tuesday 24: Newport County v Accrington Stanley (7.45pm)

Saturday 28: Newport County v Cambridge United (3pm)

May

Saturday: Carlisle United v Newport County (3pm)

League Two – current table

			|  HOME					|  AWAY
		P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Luton	39	14	2	4	54	21	7	9	3	27	19	+41	74
2	Accrington	37	14	2	3	37	18	9	3	6	27	22	+24	74
3	Wycombe	39	10	5	5	40	30	10	5	4	33	24	+19	70
4	Notts Co	39	12	5	2	37	17	6	7	7	24	25	+19	66
5	Exeter	38	12	3	4	27	15	8	3	8	23	26	+9	66
6	Coventry	38	12	3	4	29	13	7	4	8	18	18	+16	64
7	Mansfield	38	10	8	1	37	19	6	7	6	19	21	+16	63
8	Lincoln	38	10	6	3	32	19	6	7	6	21	21	+13	61
9	Swindon	38	8	2	8	23	32	11	1	8	36	26	+1	60
10	Carlisle	39	7	8	5	29	20	8	4	7	27	29	+7	57
11	Colchester	39	8	6	5	27	18	6	7	7	20	25	+4	55
12	Newport Co	38	6	9	3	25	19	7	5	8	23	30	-1	53
13	Crawley	39	8	3	9	27	25	7	5	7	22	29	-5	53
14	Cambridge U	39	10	5	4	24	16	3	7	10	15	35	-12	51
15	Cheltenham	39	7	6	6	27	23	5	6	9	31	34	+1	48
16	Stevenage	38	7	8	4	34	22	4	3	12	16	34	-6	44
17	Crewe	39	8	3	9	27	29	5	1	13	22	34	-14	43
18	Yeovil	37	8	4	7	27	19	3	5	10	20	38	-10	42
19	Morecambe	38	6	6	7	19	23	3	8	8	18	24	-10	41
20	Forest Green	39	9	2	9	30	30	2	5	12	17	37	-20	40
21	Port Vale	39	5	6	8	21	24	4	6	10	20	30	-13	39
22	Grimsby	39	4	7	8	15	23	5	3	12	17	38	-29	37
23	Chesterfield	37	7	3	10	25	30	2	4	11	15	36	-26	34
24	Barnet	39	4	6	9	16	24	3	3	14	18	34	-24	30