County suffered a 4-1 defeat away at Crawley Town, with Omar Bogle grabbing the Exiles’ only goal of the game.
Graham Coughlan made just one change to his starting line-up for the trip to Crawley, with James Waite filling in for the absent Aaron Wildig.
The two teams clearly got the memo about Saturday being the hottest day of the year, with the opening ten minutes of the game being played at a red-hot tempo.
The hosts grabbed the first goal with just six minutes on the clock. Some clever play from Ronan Darcy and Adam Campbell in the middle saw them find Nick Tsaroulla in the box, with the striker firing low past the outstretched arms of Townsend.
County responded quickly, with Bogle bullying Wright on the edge of the Crawley box, turning sharply and directing the ball towards the right of Corey Addai, with the Crawley keeper parrying it away.
Bogle repeated this trick just a minute later, knocking the Crawley defence out of the way and, this time, hitting the ball expertly to the left-hand side of a stationary Addai, drawing County level in the 10th minute.
After a hectic opening ten minutes, the pace of the game slowed significantly, with neither team able to create any major chances. The best opportunity fell to Crawley’s Campbell after some neat work from Darcy, but he failed to connect with the final shot, with the ball ending up comfortably in Townsend’s grasp.
Just after the 30-minute mark, Crawley had their most speculative effort of the half. A cross was cleared by Delaney and dropped to Liam Kelly, who fired a fierce volley straight at Nick Townsend from 20 yards.
The action continued to cool down, with neither team producing notable moments before the half-time whistle.
Half Time
After a slow start to second half, Newport were unlucky to go behind through an Adam Campbell goal in the 54th minute. Ronan Darcy hit a shot that was well-parried by Townsend but the keeper was unable to stop Adam Campbell striking home on the follow-up.
Minutes later, Coughlan went to his bench for the first time, bringing Matty Bondswell and Olly Thomas on for Bryn Morris and James Waite.
Thomas’s impact was nearly instant. He recieved the ball, turned Liam Kelly and struck a powerful effort straight at Addai in the Crawley goal.
We were dealt a huge blow in the 66th minute when Adam Campbell picked up the ball on the edge of the 18 yard-box and curled the ball into the top right-hand corner of the net, giving Crawley a 3-1 lead.
Heads didn’t drop though, and we found our way through the Crawley defence in the 71st minute. Some tidy footwork from Evans saw him turn Maguire and feed the ball through to Bogle. The striker then put the ball through Addai’s legs only for the keeper’s back foot to prevent him from grabbing his second of the day.
Crawley added a fourth in the 77th minute when their captain Ben Gladwell hit a strike into the bottom right-hand corner from outside the box, securing the points for the hosts.
Bogle continued his hunt for a second, with an excellent cross from Matty Bondswell coming agonisingly close to getting us back into the game in the 85th minute, giving us our best chance of the half.
Newport will look to get back to winning ways when we host Barrow at Rodney Parade next Saturday afternoon.
Newport County: Townsend, Lewis, Delaney, Clarke (Drysdale 83’), Evans, Bogle, Waite (Thomas 57’), Bennett, Charsley (Wood 74’), Morris (Bondswell 57’), McLoughlin (Payne 74’)
Subs: Maxted, Payne, Drysdale, Thomas, Wood, Bondswell, Seberry
Crawley Town: Addai, Kelly, Ransom (Forster 45’), Maguire (Forster 83’) , Gladwin (Roles 88’), Orsi, Darcy (Khaleel 83’), Tsaroulla, Williams, Campbell (Lolos 83’) , Wright
Subs: Ashby-Hammond, Lolos, Roles, Henry, Forster, Johnson, Khaleel
Attendance: 2,949 (286 away)