Newport County manager James Rowberry stressed the importance of his team not taking struggling Scunthorpe lightly ahead of the long trip on Saturday.
The Iron are currently second-bottom of League Two and on a run of three straight defeats going into the weekend's game, but boss Rowberry knows that a side managed by Keith Hill cannot be taken lightly.
"I'm really conscious of the fact that Scunthorpe are 23rd in the league but we can't take that as if we're going to go there, turn up and play because it's not that simple - they're fighting for their lives," Rowberry said.
"They've got a very good manager in Keith Hill who's been around the divisions a lot. One thing we're going to have to be is patient on the ball. A lot of the teams they play against have more possession than them - they have the second-lowest possession percentage in the league. We're going to have to be patient in our build-up and it will be a challenging game because we have to break them down.
"They overload the middle of the pitch well, we have to find ways to combat that. They're on their own patch and we need to impose ourselves on the game."
County boss Rowberry will be back in the dugout on Saturday afternoon after missing the 4-0 win over Harrogate last Saturday due to a COVID diagnosis.
He had to watch the win, overseen by assistant Wayne Hatswell, on iFollow, which was a unique experience for the gaffer.
"It's great to be back, it's been a good week in training. It's nice to see the lads, it was a great result for them last week and a great result for us," Rowberry said on returning to the fold at Newport this week.
"Watching at home when you've got two little girls under five is quite chaotic! I haven't got a big mansion where I can lock myself away in a room. They had their iPads in the first half and in the second half they were sat next to me - it was a little bit different to what I'm used to on a game day but they were good as gold.
"It was surreal, it was something totally different, but the game was left in trusted hands. It's no surprise that we did so well with the preparation during the week. Everyone did a terrific job and now we need to follow it up with the trip to Scunthorpe."