Harrogate Town: ‘I feel sorry for the goalkeeper he probably kept the score down to four’ - Simon Weaver

There were a couple of encouraging bits of approach play during the first half of Saturday’s clash at Rodney Parade, but the Sulphurites looked largely ineffective in the final third, while their defending was, for the most part, absolutely woeful.

Chasing the game after Mickey Demetriou converted an eighth-minute penalty, the visitors could in truth have been further behind by the time Dom Telford’s close-range strike squirmed under the body of Mark Oxley just before half-time.

As easy as it was for the Exiles to cut Town open during the opening 45, far worse was to follow in the opening minutes of the second period as Telford – who is the division’s top-scorer – was afforded the freedom of South Wales to end the game as a contest before Courtney Baker-Richardson netted on 55 minutes.

“Whilst we were disappointed to lose the game and we were fuming, this has left a bit of a flat feel. There was less emotion after the game because people weren’t good enough for the level today,” Weaver reflected.

“We were poor. I feel sorry for the goalkeeper he probably kept the score down to four, which is pretty embarrassing in itself.

“There weren’t too many who came out of it with credit, whether it be young or old or experienced. It was not a good day at the office.”

Newport County: Townsend; Norman, Pask, Demetriou, Haines; Bennett (Lewis 86); Cooper (Waite 60), Azaz, Caine; Telford (Collins 82), Baker-Richardson. Unused substitutes: Day, Clarke, Fisher, Abraham.

Harrogate Town: Oxley; Fallowfield (Sheron 67), Legge, McArdle, Page; Pattison, Falkingham; Diarra (Austerfield 68); Thomson, Armstrong, Muldoon (Beck 65). Unused substitutes: Cracknell, Kerry, Richards.

Referee: O Yates (Staffordshire).