Newport County brushed aside Hampton & Richmond on Saturday to inch themselves closer to the Blue Square South title.
The 4-0 scoreline reflected a scintillating display from the Exiles, including a breathtaking first-half in which a three-goal lead was established. Two more away matches follow this latest success on the road, starting with Worcester City on Monday night.
County set a great tempo in the opening stages and should have gone ahead before the first goal when Sam Foley was played through by Jamie Collins, but Foley’s shot was saved by the legs of goalkeeper, Matt Lovett.
Only a minute later though, and County were up and running courtesy of Craig Reid. Again it was Collins with a well-weighted ball that Reid latched onto and Reid spotted Lovett off his line and executed a wonderfully-placed chip from outside the penalty area into the right-corner of the net. A brilliantly-taken goal on what proved to be an afternoon for the travelling fans to savour.
It was all Newport as Reid nearly chipped the goalkeeper again before the second came through a beautifully-worked passing move. Reid jinked into the penalty area and fed Foley whose slipped ball back to Reid was placed across the face of goal for the onrushing Wayne Turk to power home with his left foot.
Reid then won a penalty, turning his man and being hauled down, which he dispatched easily to Lovett’s left-hand to put the result beyond doubt at half-time.
The flowing football Newport were producing was a joy to watch and were it not for an offside flag and the underside of the crossbar, the damage could have been even worse for the home side at the break.
To Hampton & Richmond’s credit they rallied in a quieter second half and almost grabbed a consolation or two but it was Newport who had the final say as Danny Rose swung in an injury-time corner which Sam Foley attacked and glanced a header home from the edge of the six-yard box.
By Alex Winter
Alex is a journalism student and edits the Gloucestershire cricket blog, The Shire Blog
