THE EXILES CLOSER TO SAFETY
should’ve won but we didn’t.”
County manager Justin Edinburgh was thrilled with their point after a run of just two wins in 17 games.
“We’ve come to a titlechasing side and got a point, we’ve earned four points against Chesterfield this season and it shows what we are capable of,” he said.
“They’ve had a consistent second half to the season and we haven’t, but if we play like we did against Chesterfield I think we are looking at a good decent top-half finish.
“Our last seven or eight performances have been better albeit without the results, but we’ve given ourselves a platform to build on.
“Not many would have expected much from us, so I am proud of the lads.”
Porter’s splendid late strike helped the Exiles to a shock point, but they’ll feel it was merited on the balance of play.
The hosts are gunning for promotion while Newport are merely trying to keep their heads above water, but you wouldn’t have known it in a dull first period.
Striker Shaun Jeffers has barely featured since signing from Posh but he impressed, testing Tommy Lee on five and 22 minutes, testing the goalkeeper with two curling efforts. The hosts were hardly on the front foot but when they did penetrate County their finishing was lacking, Ryan blasting wide with their best chance on half time.
However, the hosts were a different side and subsequently seized control, Ryan’s beautiful lob on 49 minutes catching out McLoughlin.
But the hosts failed to get the second and Newport ended their hopeless run in 2014 when Porter curled home spectacularly with only eight minutes remaining.