Blank day for Exiles as they slip to defeat
THE long wait for a change in fortunes for Newport County continues after they fell to another defeat to make it eight league outings without a win – and a fifth successive Boxing Day reverse.
If last weekend’s 2-1 reverse at bottom club Morecambe was the lowest point in Michael Flynn’s managerial career, at least his side showed some fight and fire against a side just behind the top team in League Two.
Lee Martin’s first-half winner was only the 19th goal conceded in 21 games to date, but the real worries for Flynn are at the other end of the field.
County have scored just 19 goals in the same number of matches and not even a double change at the start of the second half when Flynn replaced Padraig Amond and Taylor Mahoney with Tristan Abrahams and George Nurse could spark a goal.
It meant a slip down the table to 14th for the Exiles, who only a few weeks ago were still being talked about as play-off candidates. Now they find themselves nine points adrift, albeit with two games in hand.
It was an unlucky 13th minute for the Exiles as they conceded the opening goal. Ryan Bowman found some space in the box, passed to Jake Taylor and after his shot was blocked into moved kindly into the path of Martin, who stroked the ball past Nick Townsend
It was all very physical, frantic and fractured, but the worry for Flynn was that his players weren’t picking up the second balls.
Roared on by a crowd of 5,968, which included Wales international Ethan Ampadu as well as a travelling army of more than 500 from south Wales, the home team created the more clear-cut chances.
Newport kept pushing to the end and a great cross from Lewis Collins deserved a better finish from Jamille Matt as the striker headed over.