From the 4th-19th March Level Playing Fields are holding Weeks of Action celebrating the Game Changers who offer people with Mental Health issues a place to participate in sport. (Read more here). Our community team have been working with We Wear the Same Shirt since November running training sessions every Thursday.
On Wednesday 1st March, the team played their first match against Swindon Town FC. A squad of 11 met at Rodney Parade before making the hour and a half trip to Swindon.
Luke Martin, who plays in the team, wrote this account of the day:
On Wednesday March 1st, we travelled to play Swindon Town in our first fixture for the Newport County AFC – We Wear the Same Shirt team. We met at Rodney Parade for 12.30pm and the journey took us 1 hour 30 minutes. I must say I was nervous getting on the Mini bus but as we got closer to the ground and all the players were laughing and motivating each other, my nerves left me.
When we got to the changing rooms, I was focused and Norman & me picked the team and told them what positions they would be playing. We warmed up to prepare for the match and avoid injuries. The way we played was brilliant - we should be proud of ourselves because this was our first ever competitive match. We had a good defence, midfield & attack and went 1-0 up before Half Time with a goal from Wayne Bartlett.
In the second half Swindon started on the front foot and scored after 10 minutes with a well worked goal. Swindon scored again quickly to go 2-1 into the lead.
The match was end to end with both sides creating chances, when Wayne Bartlett scored his 2nd goal to make it 2-2.
Sadly, our Centre Half Emily injured her knee with only a minute left to play and the sides shook hands for a 2-2 draw. Emily was taken to Hospital but she is recovering now with sprained knee ligaments. We all went into the club house and enjoyed the food and drink provided by Swindon Town. We laughed and joked about the match. We had a good journey home and laughed for most of it. We are going to be playing Swindon in Newport within the next 4/5 weeks and then we have a Competition at Dragon Park on June 11th against Merthyr, Newtown, Wrexham & Cardiff.
We would like to thank Swindon Town for the day and Norman for organising the match and being our driver.
NEWPORT COUNTY AFC SQUAD: