Newport 2-2 Carlisle review

A busy day at Newport ended in a chaotic 2-2 draw between Newport and Carlisle as 2 interim managers go head to head. Earlier today county appointed James rowberry as their new manager. The ex cardiff coach was in attendance tonight and he'd be impressed with what he seen. 

Nevermind a cold Tuesday night in stoke this was a wet Tuesday night in Newport. Carlisle's start only dampened the mood as Joe Riley put the visitors ,who hadn't won in the league since the 4th of September against Salford into the lead pretty much straight from kick off. As the half went on though county grew into it with Telford going through on goal but the offside flag stopped his charge. In the 28th minute Telford got his goal! Haynes set him up and he scored. Remarkably it was like London buses as 3 minutes later he had his 2nd with a superb goal. County went on to control the first half but couldn't add a 3rd. 

The 2nd half was chaotic to say the least. Carlisle came out and what ever their interim manager said at half time it worked as they looked the more threatening at the start of the 2nd half but nothing came of it until in the 67th minute they had a penalty after Ed upson was judged to have handled the ball in the box leading to a red card for him. The penalty was tucked away by Zach clough (no relation to Brian). Carlisle tried to make their man advantage count and they would have if it wasn't for Joe Day who pulled off a few worldie saves to denie Carlisle from getting the goal which would give them all 3 points. In the 85th minute county were down to 9 men as Ryan Haynes, after a bad foul was send off after picking up his 2nd yellow card. If anyone was going to win the game it would have been Carlisle who threw the kitchen sink at county but in the end county held on to the point thanks to some rugged defending and a few top class saves from Joe Day. The point leaves county in 13th on 17 points and were now unbeaten in 4 in the league. 

There is plenty for New manager James Rowberry to be impressed by. Oli cooper had and other good game and picked up another assist, his 3rd in 2 games. His influence is slowly growing in this team. He's built up a partnership with the front 2 of Baker-Richardson and Telford. Telfords brace puts him onto 4 goals for the season which makes him county's top scorer in the league this season. It's still unknown what Wayne Hatswell's position will be but it sounds like he could stick around under the new manager as they're friends and did their coaching badges together. 

A breakdown of the game is coming tomorrow on look back in amber at 7pm on Newport City Radio with me, Stephen and Lamsie. Also don't forget to follow us on twitter @Absoutecounty and on Instagram @absolutely_county       

    

Newport county 3-4 Arsenal Review

 Well if anyone told you that this would be a boring game of football then they couldn't be more wrong as Newport County and Arsenal's u21 played out an entertaining and for county a narrow 4-3 loss.

Arsenal were under strength as a number of their academy players are currently away on International duty with their respective nations. But with Arsenal being a top club you'd expect who ever they put out would be class. County were much changed, 11 in all from the entertaining 0-0 draw in the game from Saturday against Bradford with fringe players and academy graduates making up the squad a lot of the squad. 

Previous to this in county's last 2 games in the group stage of this competition against u21 sides there has been 14 goals in them. The 5-0 loss against Norwich last season and The close 5-4 defeat against West ham's academy. So plenty of goals were to be expected. 

Newport looked like they lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Collins through the middle in the no.10 position. County started off well with Lewis Collins intercepting a loose pass but seen his shot go high into the Newport night sky. As the half went on Arsenal began to set up base in County's half with them creating one or 2 chances. In the 19th minute a well taken Jordan Greenidge goal put us 1-0 up. Then after a short break in play county looked like they were court sleeping as Omari Hutchinson slotted home the equalizer in the 34th minute. Hutchinson looked lively for the gunner's all night long in my opinion. The 2 teams went in at the break all square at 1-1. County looked good in the first half even with the 11 changes. I thought Aneurin Livermore's influence in the game grew as the half went on.    

At the break county made 2 changes with Timmy Abraham and Alex Fisher coming on for Jermaine Hylton and Jordan Greenidge. Fisher made an instant impact as he forced a worldie save out of Ovie Ejeheri in the Arsenal goal. The gunner's took the lead via a fantastic Salah-Edine Oulad M'hand free kick from the edge of the county penalty area. We did to Arsenal what they did to us in the first half as Timmy Abraham scored after a quick restart from the port. A few short moments later and county took the lead as the other half time substitute Alex Fisher managed to get his shot through a crowd of players and into the back of the Arsenal net. As it stood county were going to be getting the £10k bonus on offer for the winner of the game which would be a welcome boost financially for the club. A few Arsenal changes later and they managed to find the equilzer through James Olayinka. The game was there for the taking for either side. If it was a draw at full time then the game would have gone to penalties to see who would get an additional point. Penalties weren't needed though as the newly introduced Charles sagoe junior scored the winner for Arsenal with 2nd to go. 

Newport played well and Interim manager Wayne Hatswell will have 1 or 2 Selection head aches for the weekends trip to Exeter. Jordan Greenidge looked very impressive for County in the first half but for me Jake Cain was the man of the match this evening. 

Let me know what you made of the game in the comments below! Also don't forget to follow us on twitter @Absoutecounty and on Instagram @absolutely_county