Rotherham22 – 2Newport County2

Paul Davis of the Rotherham Advertiser reported chants about chairman Tony Stewart and criticism of individual players during Saturday's defeat at Fleetwood, with the club next to bottom of League Two. Supporters' posts that evening pushed for a demonstration against the board before and after Tuesday's game rather than during it, which would put visible dissent around a fixture Rotherham badly need to win. No organised group has published numbers and the club has not commented, so an effect beyond an edgy home atmosphere cannot be assumed; the risk runs both ways, with a hostile crowd capable of unsettling a young side as easily as it pressures the board.

Mullins has Newport unbeaten in six League Two games and 11th, a point outside the play-off places, and BBC Sport Wales framed the run around their unbeaten home record at Rodney Parade. On the road the picture differs: County have drawn their past two league away games 0-0 and have not won away in the league this season, their only away victory coming in the EFL Trophy at Swindon on 22 September. That matters because a Tuesday night at the side second from bottom is exactly the fixture that tests whether the unbeaten tag travels. Mullins' previous post was at Colchester United, who Newport beat 1-0 on 10 October.

Doidge scored in the 2-1 home win over Grimsby on 26 September and had been part of Mullins' attacking rotation before the groin problem was confirmed on 15 October. Newport's goals have been spread across several forwards this season, which limits how much one absence should be weighted, and the same update cleared loan signing Kion Etete to return, with Shaquille Gwengwe also on the scoresheet against Grimsby. The relevant risk is less Doidge's individual output than the disruption to a front line that had settled, on a short turnaround before a Tuesday away game.