Newport County v Doncaster Rovers: Could Richard Wood have been lining up for the opposition?

Wood joined Doncaster in May after leaving Rotherham United and has since been appointed captain.

He previously played with Coughlan, himself a centre-half, at Sheffield Wednesday between 2005 and 2007.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow's match between Newport and Rovers, Coughlan said: "Richard Wood, their skipper, he was going mad to come down and join us and was badgering me all summer really about coming in.

"But at the time I had an experienced left-footed centre-half in Mickey Demetriou, so I didn't pursue that."

Irishman Coughlan spoke highly of his former teammate and Doncaster's management team of Grant McCann and Cliff Byrne.

He said: "Richard Wood and his good lady, Jade, great people. I remember Richard being a kid at Sheffield Wednesday.

"He will come here and have a point to prove. He will want to have a wry smile on his face.

"I am sure he will drop me a text on Saturday night and I just hope it's an unhappy emoji face.

"I'm looking forward to seeing some of their players and their management team as well because they are good people and I have a lot of time for them."

Coughlan also talked up Doncaster's chances in League Two this season.

He said: "I probably expect Doncaster to be up there at the end of the season, I think we all would.

"Grant and Cliff Byrne are really good lads, a good management team, good coaches. They have got a real good team.

"I expect a really technical Doncaster team, who will be hurting from last week's defeat. They will come here in buoyant mood, having beaten Hull, so it will be a real tough encounter.

"They came here last year and did a job on us, so we don't want that to happen again. We need to be up, we need to be at it, and we need to be in their face.

"We need to get close to them because if we stand off them they will play and pick us apart."

Newport also bounced back from their opening-day defeat with a win in the Carabao Cup as they beat League One Charlton 3-1 at Rodney Parade on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Byrne believes Doncaster are showing signs of progress following their win over Hull, which saw a much improved performance from last weekend’s defeat to Harrogate.

He said: “There’s been a lot of change, probably a shift in the dynamic of how we want the team to play and there’s been new personnel introduced.

"Naturally it can take time. With the work we have done in pre-season we want to try and accelerate that. At times you have got to be patient and allow the group to evolve.”

Byrne revealed he paid little attention to the opening day results, which the division’s three promotion favourites, Wrexham, Stockport and Notts County, all lose.

He said: “You probably wait until around the ten-game mark to start saying who’s getting a bit of fluency.

"They eyebrows are raised at some of the results you come across, but you can dismiss them. It just demonstrates that if you are not at it on any given matchday then you are going to come unstuck.”