EXILES SOAR TO LOFTY HEIGHTS
NEWPORT County moved into the automatic promotion places after claiming the spoils in a home win over Scunthorpe United, with boss Michael Flynn heaping praise on match-winner Josh Sheehan.
His spectacular strike game after a goal from Padraig Amond and a Mark O’Brien own goal, and left the hosts one point off the top with a game in hand on their promotion rivals.
“It was a great finish from Josh, I’m always onto him because he doesn’t hit the target enough,” said Flynn. “A player of his technical ability should be hitting it more often, so I’m delighted for him.
“He’s been outstanding this season, head and shoulders above most players in the league.
“You haven’t always got to hit the stuffing out of it, it was a good, technical finish and he should be doing it more.
“I’m always delighted to get three points. We should have made it more comfortable than we did because they came at us in the last ten minutes.
“Our position doesn’t mean anything at this stage of the season, it just means we started well. It’s nice to be there but we have a long way to go.
“Padraig finished his goal well, he was lucky because I told him I was going to take him off at half-time after his performance. But he got in the right place at the right time and took it instinctively.”
Newport got the breakthrough a minute into firsthalf stoppage time when Danny McNamara whipped the ball back into the box for Robbie Willmott to divert the ball toward goal, before Amond headed the ball into the back of the net.
Newport were their own worst enemies in the 49th minute when James Perch played a teasing ball in across the six-yard box and watched O’Brien slice it into his own net.
But the hosts retook the lead seven minutes later when Amond brought Ryan Haynes’ high clearance down with a deft touch and left it for the onrushing Sheehan, who curled a first time effort into the bottom corner.
Scunthorpe substitute Jamie Ward was fortunate to avoid a red card for a late challenge on Ryan Inniss as Newport held on for victory.
Scunthorpe’s run of three games unbeaten came to an end in South Wales, and manager Paul Hurst believes they deserved to get more from the encounter.
“I’m disappointed our run has come to an end,” said the Iron manager. “We felt like we deserved something from the game.
“We saw two different halves to our performance today, we know it’s a difficult place to come to.
“I didn’t think there was a gulf between us and a team who are right up there. Newport have won the game and that will make them successful”.