A MICKEY Demetriou penalty and an 89th-minute winner from Mark O’Brien sealed a 2-1 victory over Notts County and ensured that Newport County AFC preserved their League Two status for another season. Here’s what we learned…
1. We are staying up!
A seventh win in 12 games under Michael Flynn was enough to complete the Great Escape and what a way to do it!
It seemed so comfortable for an hour, too comfortable. It wouldn’t be Newport County if they did it the easy way.
Nerves were shredded all around Rodney Parade but the scenes of celebration at the end will live long in the memory. Despite spending 207 days in the bottom two, the Exiles are safe.
2. Mickey Demetriou is ice cool under pressure
The defender demonstrated nerves of steel as he hammered home a 32nd-minute penalty after Lenell John-Lewis had been fouled.
It was the defender’s fourth goal in seven games and another solid showing at the back showed he was a worthy winner of the League Two player of the month award for April.
Demetriou has won League Two promotion with Shrewsbury Town in the past and would be a major asset next season. But can County keep him?
3. David Pipe has a left foot
It was appropriate that Pipe, the man who has epitomised County’s fighting spirit over the past few months, should be involved in both goals on the final day.
The right wing-back, who was released by his parent club Eastleigh on Friday, played the ball into Lenell John-Lewis for the penalty.
And he chipped a perfect cross in with his little-used left foot for Mark O’Brien to score the goal that kept the club in the Football League.
4. Mark O’Brien can finish like a striker
The 24-year-old Dublin-born defender with the big bushy red beard will go down in history as the man who scored the goal to complete the Great Escape.
It couldn’t have been any more dramatic as he volleyed into the corner of the net to his first goal in the Football League and earn himself legendary status in Newport.
It was another inspired decision from Flynn to send the centre-back forward and it paid off with a finish that Harry Kane would have been proud of.
5. Bring on Coventry, Swindon, Port Vale, Lincoln…
Finally the tension is over and, once the hangovers clear, County fans can start looking forward to next season.
The fixture list in June will be a day to saviour with trips to former Premier League outfits Coventry City and Swindon Town to look out for. And no more clashes with Plymouth Argyle!
And, surely, caretaker boss Flynn will be the man be the man in charge on a permanent basis and the man plotting a brighter future for the club he loves.
Newport County 2 Notts County 1: The Exiles are safe
I will never forget this moment, says Great Escape hero Mark O'Brien
5 things we learned from Newport County 2 Notts County 1
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