Offrande Zanzala’s first Newport County goal saw the Welsh team come from behind against Crewe Alexandra at the Alexandra Stadium last night. Lachlan Brook gave the hosts the lead before Cameron Norman levelled in the second half.
Manager Lee Bell, in his first game as permanent manager, made two changes from last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Barnsley in the FA Cup with midfielders Charlie Colkett (making his first league start for the club) and Brook coming in for Billy Sass-Davies and Eli King, who both dropped down to the bench.
The opening chance and goal fell to the hosts in the 13th minute with Brook hitting the ball on the half-volley from 25 yards from Kelvin Mellor’s through ball before the visitors’ opening chance came just before the half-hour with right wing-back Norman hitting the bar from a similar distance.
Newport captain Demetriou would head a corner from Aaron Lewis straight at Arthur Okonkwo on the hour before the score would be levelled in the 62nd minute as Norman would convert from a scramble. The wing-back would hit the bar for a second time 9 minutes later, again from outside the area, before substitute Zanzala would score with 5 minutes to play as he converted from close range from Priestley Farquharson’s knockdown.
The next games for the Alex host Leyton Orient next Saturday (with the earlier kick-off of 1:00 pm) with our next away game at Walsall the following Saturday.
What can we take out of this game?
Was the case that we got exactly what we deserved out of the game, frustratingly not for the first time in recent memory.
A fantastic strike from Brook to open the scoring but, from that point onwards, it seemed as though the gameplan was to stop Newport from scoring rather than trying to get what could have been a killer second goal.