Gwengwe’s Rapid Rise at Newport: From Poole to Player of the Month Nod

Hayden Mullins has seen enough dressing rooms to know when a story is worth backing. In Shaquille Gwengwe, he sees one unfolding in real time.

Four goals in August. A League Two Player of the Month nomination. All within weeks of stepping out of the Southern League Premier South and into the unforgiving grind of the EFL. The jump is usually brutal. Gwengwe has made it look like a stride.

“It was rightly deserved, with four goals in five games. He works incredibly hard,” said the Newport County manager, his admiration clear.

Mullins has leaned heavily on that work ethic as the 25-year-old adjusts to a level where every mistake is punished and every touch is judged.

This is not a typical EFL ascent. Last season, Gwengwe tore through defences for Poole Town, scoring 47 times. Those numbers usually live in the non-league shadows, admired locally, ignored higher up. Newport decided they were worth a gamble. August has already started to pay them back.

Crucially, it’s not just the goals. Mullins keeps coming back to the same theme: attitude.

“He always wants to work on areas of his game which he feels might help him to develop,” he explained. “He's not come into the group and sat back; he's come in, and he really wants to push. He's got a lot to learn, but he's really open and wants to improve. His product is the by-product of all his hard work.”

The “product” so far has arrived from an unexpected position. Gwengwe prefers to play through the middle, to live between the posts and bully centre-backs. All four of his August goals, though, came from a wide role in Mullins’ system. Adapt or sit out. He chose the former.

The manager likes that flexibility. He also sees something more long-term.

“The good thing is he is open-minded. Wherever he can get into the team, he'll play and try and do a job,” Mullins said. “He could be equally effective through the middle, but maybe we have to change a few things to help that.

“He's jumped a lot of levels very quickly and with every game he's gaining more experience. Once he figures out the different challenges at this level, there's no reason why he couldn't play as the nine.”

For now, the nomination itself is a marker of how far and how fast he has travelled. Gwengwe was shortlisted alongside Barnet’s Charlie Larkin, Crewe striker Josh March and York City’s Harry Boyes, who ultimately took the award. To even be in that company, so soon after leaving non-league, underlines the scale of his adaptation.

Inside the Newport camp, team-mates have noticed the same thing the manager has: a forward who changes the feel of a game the moment he steps onto the pitch.

Midfielder Ciaran Brennan didn’t dress it up. “Shaq definitely knows where the goal is, so when he's on the pitch there's always half a chance that he might sniff something out,” he said.

That instinct, sharpened in the lower leagues, is now being tested against better defenders, tighter spaces, and higher stakes. So far, it’s holding up.

Newport have seen talented forwards come and go, some flashing briefly, others fading under the weight of expectation. Gwengwe is still at the beginning of that journey. The goals, the nomination, the praise – they are early chapters, not the conclusion.

If he keeps climbing at this rate, the real question for Newport won’t be whether he can lead the line as a number nine. It will be how long they can keep him.