Manager Michael Flynn hailed an excellent victory over Forest Green Rovers but insisted there’s still more to come from his Newport County AFC side who currently sit second in the League Two table.
The Exiles’ high pressing mentality at The New Lawn ensured they secured their first victory on the road this season and extended the Club’s long-standing unbeaten league run to 16 matches.
Tristan Abrahams was in the thick of the action from the off and his desire to chase down Rovers goalkeeper Ben Wollacott gave County the lead on four minutes, Padraig Amond profiting from Abrahams’ block to coolly slot home into the empty net.
Abrahams’ off the ball running was a constant nightmare to the Rovers defence and when Dom Bernard sold his goalkeeper short with a back pass, the striker again nipped in to force Wollacott into a foul which saw the shot stopper dismissed.
It took County until stoppage time to make sure of the points, but it was worth the wait. Robbie Willmott laid off a short free kick for Ryan Haynes to strike a low 25-yard drive under Lewis Thomas to send the 898 away supporters’ home with smiles on their faces.
Read the full match report.
“I thought we were excellent, Flynn affirmed. “We were very professional out of possession but in possession, I did think we were a little sloppy – we were looking for that killer pass too much when we should have been patient.
“You know against 10 men that they’ve got nothing to lose and they’ll have a go at you last 20 minutes. They were thinking they’d rather lose 2-0 and that’s what they did.
“We’ll work on that, we’ll work on keeping the ball, making the opposition move around and the chance will come.
“We know how they play, they’re a good team who will cause a lot of teams’ problems. Their movement is good, they’re good on the ball but even when they had 11 men, we were still the better team.
“We knew we wanted to press them high, we knew we could get in their faces and for me, this is a big win. I’ve got a lot of time for Mark Cooper and Forest Green for the way they play, it’s a tough place to come and I’m delighted with the win.”
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ON PARADE | Newport County AFC begin their Leasing.Com Trophy exploits with a home tie against West Ham United U23s on Wednesday night. Buy tickets now.
LEAGUE TWO | The Exiles return to League Two action next Saturday when they play host to Port Vale at Rodney Parade. Tickets to be made available online soon.