BOTH sides were guilty of squandering a glut of chances as Newport County AFC and Wycombe Wanderers shared the spoils at Rodney Parade this afternoon.

County and Wycombe both made one change to their starting XIs after last weekend’s matches against Exeter and Forest Green respectively.

There was no Mark O’Brien for the hosts, David Pipe coming in, while the visitors were without talismanic striker Adebayo Akinfenwa.

The heavy rain had abated by the time the two sides took to the field – Rodney Parade’s new Desso pitch had no problems dealing with the wet weather – and it was sunshine football from the off.

Frank Nouble, the League Two player of the month, occupied a wide role for the Exiles and a feature of the first half was his unfailing willingness to run at defender Michael Harriman.

Harriman thought he had done enough to see off one such foray forward by Nouble but the latter beat the Wycombe man to the ball.

His effort across goal was pushed out by keeper Scott Brown straight to Padraig Amond but the striker could only fire his shot straight back at the custodian.

Nearly all of County’s chances before the break fell to Amond, however, none managed to find their way into the back of the net.

At the other end, a misjudgement by County stopper Joe Day almost proved dear.

Anticipating a Wycombe through ball, Day rushed out to collect but gathered outside his area.

A red card would surely have followed but a linesman’s flag for offside saved his bacon.

It was after this that Sean Rigg really came into the game, and he was unlucky when a goal-bound header struck a defender and went for a corner.

Rigg was arguably County’s player of the half and he was on the receiving end of a challenge from Dom Gape that earned the Wycombe midfielder a yellow card on 24 minutes.

Wycombe were not creating much but showed their hand when Luke O’Nien forced Day into two decent stops in quick succession.

Another two headed opportunities then fell Amond’s way before the hosts were dealt a huge blow on the stroke of half-time.

Skipper Joss Labadie was hit by another injury, leaving Pipe to take the captain’s armband and Reece Cole to come off the bench.

There was still time for Amond to have a header from Mickey Demetriou’s long throw tipped over by Brown, who then pounced on a loose ball with Amond lurking.

The ball continued to follow Amond as the second half got going.

After a better spell for Wycombe, Amond appeared to have his shirt pulled when trying to connect with a Nouble cross.

Then Amond saw another header turned out for another corner by Brown.

Suddenly it was all Wycombe and they should have put one of four excellent chances away.

All four came in the space of five minutes around the hour mark, the first two, an Umerah header and Mackail-Smith swivelled shot, being saved by Day.

Anthony Stewart then saw his free header cleared off the line and Mackail-Smith wasted a glorious opportunity when he fired just wide of the post.

Day was called into action again on 70 minutes, pushing away substitute Marcus Bean’s 20-yard effort after he had been given far too much time and space.

Michael Flynn felt a change was needed and Rigg made way for Ben Tozer.

The ball was still following Amond around the park and there were a few groans from the crowd when he opted to head back across goal rather than go for glory himself.

Back at the other end and County were grateful to Pipe for a superb goalline clearance that prevented Mackail-Smith stealing in.

The Wycombe frontman looked to be in again with four minutes left but he couldn’t quite get over Paris Cowan-Hall’s cross.

The three points were still up for grabs and if anyone deserved a break it was Amond – and he went so close to snatching the victory with a curling effort that went inches wide.

County: Day, Pipe, White, Demetriou, Butler, Willmott (Owen-Evans 84), Labadie (capt) (Cole 44), Dolan, Rigg (Tozer 72), Nouble, Amond. Subs not used: Bittner, Bennett, Quigley, Jahraldo.

Bookings: None Wycombe: Brown, Harriman, Jacobson, Stewart, El-Abd (capt), Gape (Bean 65), O'Nien, Bloomfield (Eze 79), Cowan-Hall, Mackail-Smith, Umerah. Subs not used: Richardson, Scarr, Jombati, Freeman, Southwell.

Bookings: Gape

Referee: Ben Toner

Attendance: 3,752 (302 Wycombe)