Gwengwe's Rapid Rise to EFL Stardom: From Poole to Newport
From Poole to a podium: Gwengwe’s rapid rise turns heads at Newport
Hayden Mullins has seen young forwards arrive in the EFL and freeze. Shaquille Gwengwe has done the opposite. He has torn straight into League Two life and earned a player of the month nomination before some defenders had even learned his name.
Four goals in August. Five league games. A step up from Southern League Premier South side Poole Town that should have felt like a cliff edge. Instead, the 25-year-old has treated it like a springboard.
At Poole, he was a phenomenon – 47 goals last season in non-league. Numbers like that usually come with a warning label: can he do it higher up? Mullins believes the early answer is clear enough.
“[It was] rightly deserved, with four goals in five games. He works incredibly hard,” the Newport County boss said, framing the nomination as a reward for application as much as output.
This is not a story of a hot streak and a lucky bounce. Around the training ground, Gwengwe has quickly built a reputation as a sponge. Mullins talks about a player who chases extra work, not minutes off.
“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 numbers back that up. All four of his August goals came from a wide role, despite Gwengwe openly preferring to play through the middle. It has not bothered him. He has simply found different ways to hurt teams.
That tactical flexibility has helped Mullins as he shapes a new-look attack. The manager sees a winger for now, but a centre-forward in waiting.
“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."
The nomination itself underlines 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 – with Boyes ultimately taking the award. For a player fresh out of the Southern League, sharing that stage is a statement on its own.
Inside the Newport dressing room, the impact feels even bigger. Midfielder Ciaran Brennan has already seen enough to label him a match-winner.
“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,” Brennan said.
That knack – arriving in the right pocket of space, punishing a loose touch, turning half-chances into headlines – is what separates promising stories from enduring ones. Gwengwe has forced his way into the EFL conversation in a single month. The real intrigue now is whether League Two has just met its next 20-goal forward.
