YEOVIL Town designated Saturday’s home clash with Newport County AFC as their ‘fan appreciation day’ but their supporters had little to cheer at Huish Park.

Instead it was the 744 travelling County fans who were singing in the Somerset sun after watching their side perform the role of party poopers to perfection to claim a comfortable 3-1 win.

It wasn’t quite the perfect revenge for September’s humiliating 6-0 home defeat to the same opponents, but the Exiles could have got close to matching that scoreline after a dominant display in the second half.

Robbie Willmott, who was sent off on that miserable day at Rodney Parade, broke the deadlock with a header from Ben Kennedy’s cross on 62 minutes and Michael Flynn’s men never looked back.

Four minutes later Kennedy let fly from 25 yards and saw his shot clip a defender’s shin and loop over Yeovil goalkeeper Nathan Baxter to claim his first goal for the club since his deadline day loan move from Stevenage.

And substitute Keanu Marsh-Brown, who looked full of confidence after his international exploits with Guyana, opened his County account and sealed the three points with a rocket into the top corner in the first minute of stoppage time.

South Wales Argus:

Marsh-Brown could have had another if he hadn’t slipped with only Baxter to beat and Willmott almost had a second when he forced the Glovers gloveman into an acrobatic save before sub Ade Azeez missed a sitter at the death.

Welsh defender Tom James, who got a goal back for the hosts with 17 minutes to go, felt they didn’t get what they deserved.

“It’s disappointing because I felt like we dominated the game for the first hour or so and it was just a couple of mistakes at the end that let us down,” said the former Cardiff City youngster.

Interim Yeovil boss Neale Marmon, who replaced Darren Way last week with the club deep in the relegation mire, also argued that the result might have been different if his side had managed to get the first goal when they were on top before the break.

“In our situation in the league, any boost in confidence from a goal can really help and I said at half-time that somebody needed to take the responsibility to get the ball over the line,” he said.

“Just before we went 1-0 down, we had two or three chances to get the ball into the box or to shoot at goal. But we didn’t do it and they penalised us.

“I thought the boys played really well. We weren't fearful and we tried to play football.

“But we didn’t really create clear-cut chances. We had a few half chances in the first half, but in the second half we didn’t have the final ball at all so we didn’t have any real shots on goal.

“And when you make mistakes at the back, you get punished by experienced players like they’ve got.”

But Exiles boss Flynn was in no doubt that his side deserved the win that keeps alive their hopes of claiming a place in the League Two play-offs.

“I thought we were very solid and compact in the first half,” he said.

“We defended well, kept our shape and they didn’t create anything.

“We knew we’d grow into the game, and in the second half there was only one team in it.

“Some of our attacking play in the second half was unbelievable and the goals we scored were terrific.”

There are tougher tests ahead, but back-to-back wins have put County right back in the mix and they’re not ready to give up the fight for a top-seven spot.

County: Day; Poole, O’Brien, Demetriou, Butler; Kennedy, Labadie (Dolan, 72), Sheehan, Willmott; McKirdy (Marsh-Brown, 60), Matt (Azeez, 85)

Subs not used: Pipe, Crofts, Bakinson, Randall

Booked: Kennedy, McKirdy

Referee: Nicholas Kinseley

Attendance: 3,983 (744 County)

Read more: We've got a fighting chance of making the play-offs, says Flynn