A second-half stoppage-time winner from Padraig Amond was enough for Newport County to defeat Crewe Alexandra at Rodney Parade yesterday afternoon.
Manager Dave Artell made 1 change from Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Crawley with Olly Lancashire returning after suspension for the injured Harry Pickering, a change that would see Nicky Hunt move to right-back and captain Perry Ng to left-back while new signing Chuma Anene would be amongst the substitutes.
The opening effort came just before half-time with Charlie Kirk finding Paul Green whose chip went just over before Newport had their first opportunity with Corey Whitely heading a cross wide.
Into the second half where Crewe took the game to the hosts with Ng and Kirk combining with the latter shooting over before Tom King denied Kirk with the Alex forward heading goalwards. The final 15 minutes saw more goalmouth action with Tom Lowery having an effort saved by King before two late chances for the hosts would result in them winning all 3 points. Firstly Will Jaaskelainen made a superb save to deny defender George Nurse before County would score, Eddie Nolan making a mistake allowing Tristian Abrahams to square to Amond to score in the 3rd minute of stoppage-time.
Crewe host Aston Villa in the second round of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night before hosting Bradford City next Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
It was one of those games where the ball just wouldn’t go in, not through the lack of trying, and a massive shame that we couldn’t hold on to the clean sheet and take away a point as a result. I was a little bit confused why, in the heat we had yesterday, Artell didn’t make any changes (I’ve heard the post-match interview since) but maybe introducing some fresh legs in the final 15 minutes could have change the game in our favour.