0 Ellison to the rescue

Newport 1 Port Vale

MICHAEL FLYNN hailed the impact of veteran substitute Kevin Ellison.

Vale were clinging on for a draw after seeing Leon Legge sent off for a second bookable offence in the 69th minute.

And it looked like John Askey’s men would frustrate the tabletoppers, before Ellison (right) prodded in from a stoppage-time corner.

It’s the fourth time this season that County have snatched the points late after similar last-gasp wins over Harrogate, Mansfield and Colchester.

“It’s the sign of a good team that they kept going, we knew that they had 10 men and we knew that we would have another chance, and what a finish from Kev,” said County boss Flynn

“We wanted to attack them and took off our two wing-backs late on and went for it with wingers. We wanted to force the issue and go for the win.

“I knew that if an opportunity fell for Kev that he would score, and that’s what he did. He is a fantastic professional and a great human being.

“He won’t shut up about it now. He’s already spouted off. As soon as he scored, he said imagine how many he’d get if he was given more than six minutes!”

A third straight defeat in the league sees Vale slip to ninth and left Askey cursing his luck. “I thought we deserved more,” he said. “We were seconds away from getting a result.

“Having gone down to 10 men, we thought we’d done enough to get the draw.

“I thought we’d done enough and up until the last corner, we did.

“That is twice that we’ve gone down to 10 men this season and twice that we’ve lost in the last seconds.

“It’s hard to bear, but I can’t ask any more of the players, they’ve worked really hard.”