Lewes 0 County 3 - Exiles march on after superb away day (From South Wales Argus)

Lewes 0 County 3 - Exiles march on after superb away day

11:10am Monday 30th November 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

IN A season in which the club has broken more records than the late great Roy Castle, Newport County got another monkey off their backs in Lewes on Saturday.

Dean Holdsworth’s men beat the 10-man Rooks 3-0 to record their first ever victory at the atmospheric Dripping Pan and maintain their eight-point lead at the top of the Blue Square South with a game in hand.

It was County’s 13th win in 18 games, their sixth in nine on the road, their 11th clean sheet in total and sixth shut-out away from home, but as ever the mere statistics don’t tell the whole story.

This was a terrific match which produced any number of talking- points.

Paul Cochlin, surprisingly, started in place of Alton Thelwell in a mystery move that only became clear after the match when Holdsworth revealed that the ex-Tottenham defender is on the verge of a move to Kettering Town.

Craig Reid and Dave Gilroy nearly came to blows over who was to take a 44th-minute penalty – a dispute that Reid won, only to see his decent effort brilliantly saved by Lewes goalkeeper Rikki Banks (no relation to the legendary Gordon).

Kerry Morgan scored a great goal but was lucky not to be sent off late on after raising his hands to home defender Jack Walder in retaliation for a ferocious challenge.

And super-subs Sam Foley and Charlie Henry combined for the third goal to give Holdsworth more selection headaches up front.

But without a doubt the brightest star in the gloomy monsoon-like conditions in East Sussex was Exiles midfielder Scott Rogers.

The so-called ‘holding midfield’ position seemingly invented by Claude Makelele at Chelsea a few years back is never a glamorous one.

Kids grow up wanting to be Cesc Fabregas or Fernando Torres, not Alexandre Song or Javier Mascherano.

Rogers, much more so than his partner in crime Wayne Turk, is the perennial unsung hero for County.

Many fans wanted him replaced by terrace hero Nathan Davies in August but the ex-Bath City man has been a revelation this season and he was simply brilliant at Lewes.

The public announcer identified him as Scott Powers when reading the teams out before kick-off and Rogers put in a display fit for a superhero.

It wasn’t just the fact that he scored his first goal for the club – poking home Reid’s centre from close range on 25 minutes – that was so impressive.

Rogers was in the thick of the action at the other end as early as the third minute, brilliantly clearing off the line with Thompson beaten by Chris Breach’s snap shot as the home side dominated the early proceedings.

With Turk he was the link between attack and defence, and the duo provided the solid foundation upon which a thoroughly professional performance was built.

Lewes, belying their status as relegation candidates, caused lots of problems for Cochlin and Gary Warren early on, but once Rogers had broken the deadlock there was only going to be one winner and the Exiles should have gone in at the break 2-0 up.

After Warren, Gilroy and Reid had all gone close, the slightly disappointing Ashan Holgate threaded a ball through to Gilroy a minute before the break and the striker was brought down in the box by Ryan Timms.

The defender had only been on the pitch for nine minutes after replacing the injured Ross Sutton, but once he awarded the penalty the referee had no option but to follow it with a red card for the Lewes man.

Cue the farcical interlude between Reid and Gilroy which captain Warren had to sort out and resulted in Reid’s second penalty miss of the season and a distinctly miffed Gilroy blasting the ball towards the corner flag after Banks had palmed the spot kick behind.

Making light of their numerical disadvantage, Lewes sprinted out of the blocks after the break and once again troubled the County defence, but Morgan’s speculative effort on 56 minutes effectively settled the matter.

The fiery Swansea man, on loan until the middle of January, caught the otherwise excellent Banks by surprise with a vicious shot from the edge of the area which beat the ’keeper at his near post and led to the now increasingly familiar somersault celebration.

Though he’d started well, Gilroy capped his miserable day at the office by colliding with the ’keeper and sustaining a head injury which eventually forced him off along with Jamie Collins, who took a heavy knock to his knee in a separate incident.

Those two setbacks, as well as the foot injury which meant Danny Rose didn’t feature in the squad, will have left Holdsworth thankful that the home match with Havant & Waterlooville, originally scheduled for this Wednesday, has been moved to January 20 instead.

That said, he does have plenty of decisions to make up front ahead of Saturday’s short trip to Bath.

Foley and Henry, who replaced Gilroy and Holgate respectively, reminded everyone of their undoubted class to add some extra gloss to the scoreline with seven minutes remaining.

It was perhaps hard on a spirited Lewes, who probably didn’t deserve to lose 3-0, but it was undoubtedly exhilarating to watch for the rain-sodden fans in Amber.

Foley picked out Henry on the right-hand side of the area with a perfect ball and the mercurial winger showed his brilliant brand of cockiness, bordering on arrogance, to stroke the ball with the outside of his boot past Banks and inches inside the far post.

The travelling fans went wild and Holdsworth punched the air, safe in the knowledge that this was yet another job well done.

Lewes: Banks, Barness, Sutton (Timms, 35), Pearson, Walder, Breach, Wheeler, Keehan, Louis (Fenelon, 69), Rivers (Foreman, 69), Royce.

Subs not used: Peauroux, Pople.

Booked: Walder.

Sent off: Timms.

County: Thompson, Bignot, Collins (Thelwell, 70), Turk, Warren, Cochlin, Holgate (Henry, 77), Rogers, Reid, Gilroy (Foley, 66), Morgan.

Subs not used: Hartrick, Blackburn.

Booked: Morgan.

Referee: C Lymer.

Attendance: 521.

Argus star man: Rogers.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)