The Missioners quest for points to drag themselves away from the drop zone stalled on Wednesday evening when a stupidly conceded goal midway through the first half cost us dear against a very good Newport County side.

The game opened in extremely lively fashion with the first ten minutes alone seeing no fewer than five good scoring chances. The first chance on four minutes was probably the best of the lot and was true route one. Kevin Davies fired a drop kick towards the County goal, Josh Scott beat his marker to head on to Kieran Knight but sadly with keeper Jacob Giles off his line the strikers first time lob sailed just over the bar.

The Exiles then began to push for an opener of their own, a first time effort from the lively Craig Hughes was well saved by Davies before the same player crossed from the left to an in-coming James Simpson who could not keep his header down. Jason Bowen and Nathan Davies then combined before the former shot over with play immediately switching to the other end where Scott sent Liam Feeney through on goal but he fired wide of Giles’ goal.

The chances of this game being low scoring at this stage looked very distant as chances continued to come at either end. Full-back John Munday found Scott who cut inside and fired wide and minutes later the defender was on hand at the other end to block a drive from Bowen after a quickly taken corner had been worked to him on the edge of the area.

The Missioners then earned a corner of their own that almost produced a goal, Will Hendry’s kick being met by the irrepressible Jamie Jarvis but his contact was not quite firm enough and the ball flew across goal and wide. Then came the killer blow, 22 minutes had elapsed when Feeney conceded a needless free-kick right by the corner flag, and while he stood and remonstrated with the assistant referee County took a quick kick and Davies drove unopposed along the bye-line before crossing to Simpson who somehow contrived to hit the post before Sam O’Sullivan forced the rebound home.

The award and quick taking of the free-kick, incensed the normally placid Kevin Hill who obviously voiced his opinion too vociferously to the assistant before being dismissed to the stands by referee Phipps who himself appeared to want to always be centre of attention with his whistle happy approach.

We could have been back in the game almost immediately, the impressive Scott beat off the challenge of two defenders at the corner flag before picking out Knight who appeared to miss his shot and the danger was cleared. Ten minutes later Scott went on a solo charge from his own half before seeing his shot charged down on the edge of the area with Hendry shooting wide from the rebound.

Still in the first half and still chances came, a neat piece of ball control by Scott saw Sean Ridgway set up but Giles saved easily, again play moved directly to the other end where Hughes superbly chested a free-kick with his shot on the turn being blocked away for a corner, the kick itself was fed out to Simpson but Davies was equal to his shot.

By comparison the second half was a timid affair seeing very few chances although we did get the ball in the net only to be denied by the offside flag. Just six minutes of the half had passed when a Scott cross was only partially cleared to Hendry, his 20 yard drive was fumbled by Giles and put into the net by Knight who was adjudged to have been in an offside position when the initial shot was struck and the “goal” was chalked off.

After this very little of note happened, Bowen clipped a cross into the area to Charlie Griffin but his header was well off target and for Hayes the only real chance came twelve minutes from time when a Scott free-kick from the edge of the area went about a foot over the crossbar.

Report by Kevin Watts.