Scott Lindsey learning from York City's dressing room of 'winners' and 'future coaches'

The Exiles have switched between a back three and a four this season, meaning Lindsey will not be confident of what to expect until the teams are named at 1.45pm. But even if Newport change again, he believes his team have the nous to work it out and the hunger to strive for a first away win of the season.

"We've prepped for a certain way we think they'll play," revealed Lindsey. "If that changes, the players know what plan B would look like.

"We've focused on a lot of us with the ball and how we want to look.

"It's never easy when a team flips from one formation to the next. In the Swindon game I think Ian Holloway changed his shape five times.

"I can't hold their hand through every single action, and we don't.

"We give them ideas of how it should look and if the ball's on this side of the pitch, can we find a space there?

"But we pay these players money to make decisions out there. It's not just about me holding their hands.

"I've got a lot of players who actually know the game really well. We've got potentially a lot of future coaches out there in our team who actually see the game really clearly.

"They all want to talk to you. We have meetings – individual meetings, unit meetings. Pretty much all of them are big thinkers.

"If they're not sure about things, they knock on my door, ask questions and we get on the tactics board or show clips.

"I want them to work things out because there are times when I've been really structured with my coaching – 'It has to look like this' – then you put them out there and it might look different.

"Then they're looking around as if they haven't got any idea.

"Sometimes you have to give them what I call carte blanche – do what you feel is right out there at times."

The players were bitterly disappointed to drop two points at home to Northampton Town on Saturday, to the delight of their boss.

"They're the best group I've had mentality-wise," said Lindsey. "They're winners I've learned loads from them. They really believe in themselves and us as a group.

"I remember I spoke after about the eight games to say the next games, we can't look at them as not as hard. You can feel the group looking at me and saying we're not going to look like that.

"This group of players are top, which is why they did what they did last season (winning the Conference). I know we've added some players, which I think has made us better definitely, but I've not come in and changed loads.

"I think I've made us a bit more robust, I've made us a bit more aggressive, I've made us a bit more attacking – although you wouldn't think that first half on Saturday!"

York are still to win away on their travels this season but Lindsey – who picks from an unchanged squad – thinks that is overblown.

"There might be a personnel change maybe that gives us something different but we're not making it (the away form) a thing. We don't think it's a thing," he insisted.