Newport facing an uphill battle against the leaders

The Shropshire outfit are at risk of relegation out of National Two West, with their best chance of survival being finishing as the best 13th-placed side across the regions.

A game against the league leaders could be seen as bad timing, but Adams is hoping to cause an upset and move Newport closer to safety.

“It doesn’t get any harder than playing the side top of the league, they’re a very well drilled side but maybe there’s a little bit of pressure that comes with that,” he said. “We’ve got to believe that we can go out there and compete to win the game.”

Adams added: “It’s going to be very hard; we know that we’ll have to get everything 100 per cent spot on and they would need to have an off day.

“I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but these things do happen in sport, and we’ve got to believe that it will.”

Key to their chances of success will be the discipline of the Newport pack.

Their last outing, a 24-5 defeat at Old Redcliffians, saw Newport concede more than 20 penalties, and Adams is adamant that they cannot let the same happen this weekend.

“You’re never going to win when you’re committing over 20 penalties in a game, but there were some encouraging things with our defence given how much we had to do,” he explained. “We can’t afford to give away penalties like we did in the last game though.

“Our discipline has to be 100 per cent, not just the way we play.

“It’s about bringing things together all at once, and we’ll see if that will ultimately be enough after 80 minutes.”

Meanwhile, Bridgnorth stormed to a 57-12 win over bottom-of-the-league Broadstreet at the Edgar Davies Ground to keep their promotion dreams alive.

The visitors arrived in Shropshire having lost every game so far this season, but a string of absentees for the hosts ensured nothing was taken for granted.

Bridgnorth were awarded an early penalty after a well-worked lineout, and Elliot Murphy took the three points on offer.

The home side attacked again from the restart, and a driving maul resulted in hooker Luis Evitt crossing the line for a try.

Bridgnorth continued to press forward, and after a series of drives and penalty advantages Evitt crossed the line for his second try of the match, converted by Murphy. The visitors showed signs of life from the restart but gave the ball away with a knock-on allowing the hosts’ backs to counter-attack, and strong carries from Ben Morris and Loti Molitika freed up Luke Brough for another converted try.

The away side added a score of their own before tries from Adam Ellis and Jack Cole sent the hosts into the break 36-7 up.

Bridgnorth started the second half as they finished the first, with Brough running in to score his second converted try.

The game began to lose the quality that was present in the first 40 minutes, but the frustration was broken when debutant Benji Ritson raced forwards and gathered the ball over the line for the try.

The home team had a man sent to the bin when Molitika was adjudged to have made a high tackle, only for the visitors to receive their own yellow card.

A five-metre lineout gave Evitt the opportunity to peel away from the maul and cross for a hugely-popular hat-trick, before Broadstreet added an unconverted try to finish the scoring and send Bridgnorth home happy with a convincing 57-12 win.

Bridgnorth next host Derby on Saturday.