Experienced goalkeeper Nick Townsend has agreed to sign a new deal with Newport County until the end of the 2024/25 season, as confirmed by the club’s official website. This comes after the news that experienced defender James Clarke also committed his future to the club.
The player worked his way back into the first team conversation towards the latter stages of the season (starting the final two games of the 22/23 season). Manager Graham Coughlan has decided to offer the 28-year-old shot-stopper a new deal with the player agreeing to the new terms. This does add to the speculation as to who will be The Exile’s starting goalkeeper ahead of the new campaign.
Who is Nick Townsend?
The 28-year-old is a product of Birmingham City’s academy. Has played for a variety of EFL clubs throughout his ten-year professional football career. Some of which include Birmingham City, Lincoln City and Barnsley, he had also spent some brief time on loan with Non-League side Solihull Moors.
Townsend also has six international caps to his name, representing Antigua and Barbuda, whilst keeping three clean sheets.
The dilemma with the starting role?
During Nick Townsend’s time at Newport, he has mostly always been seen as the second-choice keeper to more experienced goalkeeper Joe Day. This had been evident throughout this season too, playing only 18 of the 46 games in League Two. With this, rumours were around that Walsall was in for the 28-year-old back in January, yet nothing came from that. But with this contract now being announced, it brings the question of which goalkeeper should be The Exiles’ number 1 next season.
What’s been said?
Newport manager Graham Coughlan had positive words regarding the deal, saying:
“Nick was desperately seeking to be the club’s number one throughout last season, we gave him that opportunity and he’s been fantastic”. He then went on to say “We gave him an early offer and in turn got an early reply. It’s always great to have an international footballer amongst the squad while playing for us which cannot be overlooked. I am looking forward to working with him further next season”.
Nick also added to the website:
“Everyone seems to be pushing in the right direction, which is what I want to be part of. I’ve been here 5 seasons now and I’ve seen it all, and it just does feel like a family environment that I feel a part of”
“It’s that family feel, even down to the fans, you can have a chat to them, a proper conversation…I’ve loved every moment of it”.
Writer’s View
This deal looks very positive as the quotes suggest the deal was straightforward. Especially with the manager saying how Nick wants to be the starter in the team next year, it gives me a feeling of a real competition to Joe Day and therefore a lot of hard work to come from both keepers. There are a few more contract negotiations to hopefully be sorted with other players in the squad, if/when those deals are sorted. It should give Newport fans real optimism going into the future.
