MICHAEL Flynn celebrated the birth of his son Samuel on Thursday night and his Newport County AFC team made it the perfect week for their manager with a shock win over League Two big boys Coventry City.

Debutant Reece Cole, on loan from Brentford, scored the only goal early in the second half with a big helping hand from home goalkeeper Liam O’Brien.

But County defended superbly and they took advantage of that slice of luck to deservedly hold on for a first league win of the season.

The final whistle was met by boos from the home fans at the Ricoh Arena and wild celebrations from the 908 travelling fans who watched their side send out a big statement to the rest of the division.

Flynn had recalled David Pipe for his first league start of the season and handed debuts to new loan signings Cole and Joe Quigley.

Dan Butler and Shawn McCoulsky dropped to the bench, while there was no place in the match day squad for Sean Rigg.

But Scot Bennett and Ben Tozer did both make the bench after recovering from injury, the latter having been absent since January.

The Exiles started the match in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Ben White at left-back and Quigley furthest forward, supported by Frank Nouble from the right, Robbie Willmott from the left and Cole from the middle.

And County began confidently as Matty Dolan linked well with Willmott and Cole in particular.

It was defender Mark O’Brien who had the first shot on goal, however, as he skied a volley high and wide when a Willmott free-kick was half cleared.

And they almost fashioned an opening from a set-piece at the other end midway through the first half as Mickey Demetriou cleverly intercepted a pass and broke forward at speed.

The centre-back laid the ball off for Quigley on the right but the striker’s cross was easily cut out before Nouble could get his head to it.

And the Exiles should have been ahead three minutes later when Cole broke the offside trap and pulled the ball back from the right only for Willmott’s clipped shot to bounce back off the post.

South Wales Argus:

Willmott, who had switched flanks with Nouble, then played in Quigley (above) through the middle.

The striker on loan from AFC Bournemouth showed good strength to hold off Jordan Willis but was penalised for crashing into Coventry goalkeeper Liam O’Brien.

The effervescent Willmott then showed good initiative to intercept a short pass on the right touchline and pick out Quigley on the edge of the box with a searching cross-field ball.

Quigley tried to shift the ball onto his right foot and the ball was cleared to Cole who found Nouble on the left of the area.

The former Coventry front man’s shot was blocked and White blasted the rebound high over O’Brien’s bar.

At the other end Pipe had to react quickly to halt a couple of rapid breakaways and Demetriou denied Michael Doyle but the hosts didn’t really create much of note until first half stoppage time.

Demetriou was again the hero as he threw himself at Marc McNulty’s shot to stop an almost certain goal.

Joe Day also made his first real save in the melee before the ball was scrambled away.

Day’s opposite number O’Brien hadn’t had too many saves to make either but he certainly should have stopped Cole’s speculative shot from distance eight minutes after the break.

The midfielder’s effort didn’t appear to have enough power on it to trouble O’Brien but what should have been a regulation stop went horribly wrong as the ball bounced off the keeper’s arm and trickled into the net behind him.

The hosts’ urgency levels immediately went up by several notches and Nouble did brilliantly to confidently clear two corners.

McNulty curled a shot high and wide before Day saved superbly from substitute Tony Andreu to maintain the Exiles’ lead.

With a little over 20 minutes remaining Flynn withdrew the debutants, bringing on Bennett to help Joss Labadie protect the back four and the pacey Lamar Reynolds in an attempt to stretch the home defence.

The County fans, making plenty of noise behind Day’s goal, thought Reynolds had sealed the win but his shot found only the side netting 11 minutes from time.

Day still had to save from substitute Maxime Biamou and the dangerous Jodi Jones and McNulty sliced a chance wide, much to the delight of the away fans.

But County defended like a team possessed and comfortably saw out five minutes of stoppage time to claim a famous victory.

County: Day; O’Brien, White, Demetriou; Pipe, Labadie, Dolan, Cole (Bennett, 69), Willmott; Nouble, Quigley (Reynolds, 69) Subs not used: Bittner, Butler, Jahraldo-Martin, Tozer, McCoulsky

Referee: Paul Tierney

Attendance: 8,745 (908 County)

Argus star man: Demetriou