Newport County continued to enjoy life as Blue Square South champions as they romped to consecutive 4-1 victories over Easter.
First Maidenhead United were dispatched at Spytty Park. Early goals from Dave Gilroy and Craig Reid put the Exiles two up at half time. Danny Rose and Scott Rogers extended the lead after the break before Maidenhead grabbed a consolation.
Then on Tuesday night, County repeated the scoreline at relegation-threatened Weston-super-Mare with goals from Charlie Henry, Dave Gilroy, Paul Cochlin and Craig Reid.
County are still chasing a record points total and have three remaining matches.
Against Maidenhead, County led in just the 11th minute following excellent work down the right wing from Charlie Henry. He latched onto a throw-in, found a yard of space and whipped in a cross for Gilroy to smash into the roof of the net.
It was the industrious Henry who provided the second. Gary Warren played a beautiful cross-field ball into Henry’s path and the diminutive winger swept over a cross for Reid to slide into the left corner.
It was County back to their flowing best and all the more impressive given that torrential rain had turned the Spytty Park pitch into somewhat of a mud-bowl.
After the break Danny Rose added a third in fine style when he found space on the top of the penalty area and struck a sweet left-foot shot into the top right corner.
The afternoon got better for County as Scott Rogers’ right-foot strike from 25 yards found the bottom-right corner and the Exiles were displaying their dominance of the division.
It was more of the same at Weston, where the home side were reduced to 10 men inside 90 seconds as their captain, Mike Green received a straight red card for a professional foul on Gilroy.
County took full control. Charlie Henry opened the scoring with a beautiful 25-yard free kick, he then turned provider with a perfect through-ball for Gilroy to fire home the second.
Paul Cochlin headed home a third shortly into the second half before a Weston consolation. But Reid restored the visitors’ three-goal lead and were it not for some wayward finishing, it may have been an even better night for the champions.
By Alex Winter
