Newport County were held to a goalless draw at Stadium MK on Good Friday, ending a run of five consecutive away defeats.
Despite a number of chances for both sides across the 90 minutes, neither team were able to break the deadlock and had to settle for a point apiece.
Head coach Nelson Jardim made two changes to the starting eleven that faced Colchester United in the previous game, with Shane McLoughlin and Michael Spellman returning to the fold.
McLoughlin was the architect of County’s first chance of the game. Matt Baker stole in at the far post to meet the full-back’s curling free-kick but his header was straight at Craig MacGillivray in the Dons’ goal.
County continued to push for an opening goal and engineered another chance after 20 minutes when Cameron Antwi fired goalwards, only to see MacGillivray equal to his dipping shot.
The Dons responded shortly after and could’ve taken the lead if not for some quick reactions by Nick Townsend. Connor Lemonheigh-Evans’ looping cross was heading for the far corner of the Exiles’ keeper’s net but the shot-stopper was able to claw the ball away before Joe Thomas and James Clarke combined to clear.
Antwi was again at the centre of Newport’s attacking play five minutes before half-time. The midfielder drove through the middle of the pitch and fed a ball through to Courney Baker-Richardson, but MacGillivray was again on hand to smother and keep his clean sheet intact.
Half-Time
The second half passed with little incident. MK had the first real effort of the half on the hour mark when Joe Tomlinson tried his luck from the edge of the box but Townsend got down well to save.
The ever-dangerous Lemonheigh-Evans produced the most dangerous chance of the game with a quarter of an hour remaining. The Welshman danced his way through the County defence and was able to get a shot away. Thankfully for Newport, the curling effort came back out of the post and the score remained goalless.
That would prove to be the final talking point of the game. The draw represents County’s first point on the road since the 0-3 win at Crewe in February.
Full-Time
Newport County: Townsend, Thomas, Baker, Clarke (C) (Warner, 79’), McLoughlin, Brennan, Whitmore (Whitmore, 63’), Antwi, Spellman (Adjiboye, 79’), Baker-Richardson (Hudlin, 62’), Kamwa.
Substitutes: Webb, Warner, Martin, Patten.
MK Dons: MacGillivray, Kelly (Leko, 73’), Tomlinson (C), Offord, O’Reilly (White, 46’), Thompson-Sommers, Hendry (Orsi, 31’), Maguire, Lemonheigh-Evans, Hogan, Sanders.
Substitutes: Trueman, Nemane, Tripp, Waller.
Newport County return to League Two action on Monday afternoon (12.30pm kick-off) when they welcome Walsall to Rodney Parade.