County 4 Chelmsford 0 (From South Wales Argus)

County 4 Chelmsford 0

11:43am Monday 24th August 2009

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FIVE games into the Blue Square South campaign and Newport County finally gave their fans a performance to justify the belief that they can challenge for promotion this season.

Before Saturday’s thumping win over fellow promotion hopefuls Chelmsford County had made a solid unbeaten start.

The Exiles overcame Hampton & Richmond, scraped a draw against Lewes and were unlucky not to win at Bishop’s Stortford and Dorchester, but they hadn’t quite clicked into gear.

Most alarming was the poor form of last season’s goal hero Craig Reid, who hadn’t scored since April.

Would this be yet another season of nearly but not quite for the fans at Spytty Park?

After Saturday all those fears can be put to bed. Dean Holdsworth’s men are the real deal.

There will inevitably be set-backs in a marathon 42-game season, but County clearly have the talent to compete with the big boys in the division.

This was a display brimming with confidence. Solid in defence, County were brilliant in attack, with the pace and movement of Danny Rose and Sam Foley causing the visitors all sorts of problems.

Veteran Kevin Cooper made his first appearance of the season after illness and he too was terrific, chipping in with a well-taken second goal.

New boy Jason Bradley also played an important part with Holdsworth opting to leave Reid and Dave Gilroy – the two strikers he described as the best in the league last week – on the bench.

He lined up alongside Foley in attack with Cooper and Rose on the wings.

That left County with an impressive-looking bench, with Reid and Gilroy sitting alongside club captain Aaron Cook and the ever-reliable Nathan Davies.

Cook was called into action as early as the fifth minute, replacing Martyn Giles, who went off with a dead leg, but that didn’t seem to disrupt County’s start.

Foley, who was a certainty for man of the match before going off at half-time with a thigh strain, made his first contribution in the seventh minute with a brilliant curling effort with the outside of his right boot.

Craig Holloway in the Chelmsford goal did well to tip over at the start of what was to be a busy afternoon for him.

He saved at point-blank range from Bradley on 20 minutes after the 6ft 3in hitman got a touch to a Rose free kick just six yards out.

Foley then slipped Rose through and the ex-Manchester United man blasted against the bar before Bradley put the rebound over, but the home crowd didn’t have much longer to wait for the opener.

Bradley and Rose combined on the left to square to Foley, who casually guided the ball home from close range with a flick of his right boot for a richly deserved lead on 33 minutes.

The much-fancied visitors offered little in return, save for a neat bit of skill from Antonio Murray, who flicked a ball over Paul Cochlin’s head à la Gazza against Colin Hendry at Euro 96. Luckily for County he couldn’t find a similar finish.

But there was a huge let-off just three minutes after Foley’s goal as giant substitute Robert Edmands skipped round Cochlin’s poor challenge and raced towards Glyn Thompson’s goal.

The 6ft 6in striker looked to have done everything right, slipping the ball past Thompson only for it to clip the outside of the right-hand post and rebound behind for a goal-kick.

Things might have gone very differently at 1-1, but like all good sides County made Chelmsford pay for their profligacy when Cooper made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time.

A calamitous defensive mix-up meant Rose’s cross was only cleared to the ex-Cardiff City man, who controlled the ball and side-footed home.

That earned the perennial boo-boy a standing ovation when he was later replaced by Gilroy, but after Cochlin had added a third on 74 minutes, heading home from three yards out, the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for Reid’s late show-stopper.

The fans’ favourite replaced Foley at the break and missed several half-chances before Rose picked out his intelligent run with a defence-splitting through ball in the third minute of injury time.

The crowd held its collective breath as Reid rounded the ’keeper, but they needn’t have worried as he confidently rolled the ball into the empty net for his first goal in 715 minutes of football.

Cue pandemonium in the stands and emotional scenes on the touchline as Reid embraced Holdsworth and was mobbed by his adoring team-mates. It felt like the return of the king, and how County will need him firing if they are to challenge for the crown next April!

County: Thompson, Bignot, Giles (Cook, 5), Turk, Warren, Cochlin, Rose, Rogers, Bradley, Foley (Reid, 45), Cooper (Gilroy, 78). Subs not used: Davies, Blackburn.

Chelmsford: Holloway, Lock, Okay (Carolan, 54), Ward, Haines, Rainford, Martin, Hand, Murray (Hallett, 69), Hockton (Edmands, 15), Cook. Subs not used: Modeste, Harrison.

Referee: Mark Russell (Bristol).

Attendance: 1,042.

Argus star man: Rose.

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