Newport County enjoyed a fruitful festive period to take a 14-point lead at the top of the Blue Square South, still with a game in hand.
After Boxing Day’s trip to Worcester City was postponed, a thumping 3-0 win over Dorchester Town was followed by a 1-0 victory as Worcester came to south Wales.
The scoreline would suggest that lowly Dorchester were seen off comfortably at Spytty Park but the Exiles were made to work for the three points. The visitors stifled Newport’s creativity in the opening period but once County found a way through in the second-half it was one-way traffic.
The vital breakthrough came in fortuitous circumstances when a deflected clearance allowed Sam Foley to dart into the penalty area and square a ball for Craig Reid to slide home from eight yards out.
The second was high-quality; Kerry Morgan swept a cross-field pass to Charlie Henry, whose through-ball met the perfectly-timed run of Reid. Reid took one touch before delightfully chipping the onrushing Dorchester goalkeeper.
Captain Garry Warren then headed in James Collins’ free-kick to give the scoreline a weight County’s dominance deserved.
Successive home victories were completed in the New Year’s Day match in front of 2,525 supporters against Worcester.
Worcester City – occupying a lower league position than Dorchester – provided a far sterner test and were it not for Shabir Kahn’s controversial sending off midway through the second-half, may well have left with a point.
It was an entertaining start to 2010 and a single goal was a poor return from a thrilling encounter. Paul Bignot somehow failed to open the scoring from six yards out, Garry Warren struck a header against the bar, Wayne Turk was forced to clear off the Newport line and Glyn Thompson produced a wonderful diving save all within the opening half hour of the contest.
Worcester were certainly defying their league position and showing plenty of flair going forward, but they were forced to consolidate their efforts following Kahn’s dismissal. He clashed with Kerry Morgan following a stiff, but clean challenge and the referee, on consultation with his assistant who had not flagged when Morgan went down, showed Kahn the red card.
The visitors were already feeling extremely hard done-by when their resistance was finally broken in the 80th minute. Morgan played a first-time ball into the penalty area from Scott Rogers’ pass and the resulting scramble ended with Sam Foley netting from inches out.
A profitable period for County sees them extend their lead at the top of the table. They continue to grind out the results and have developed a winning habit that has no sign of stopping.
By Alex Winter
Alex is a journalism student and edits the Gloucestershire cricket blog, The Shire Blog
