Mike Flynn’s winning start as Newport caretaker boss continued with a defiant 1-0 victory at Morecambe’s Globe Arena that lifted his side off the foot of the League Two table.
Ryan Bird was the Exiles’ goal hero when he kept his cool to beat Barry Roche from the penalty spot in the 66th minute after Alex Samuel had been brought down by Alex Whitmore in the Morecambe box.
From there Newport packed their defence but had further chances to extend their lead with substitutes Jazzi Barnum-Bobb and Aaron Williams wasting glorious late opportunities.
But County held on to make it two wins from two games for Flynn, who began with a victory at Crewe after taking over from sacked manager Graham Westley.
Flynn said: “I told the lads before the game that I wanted us to be off the bottom of the league at the end of the game and to see that we did that was brilliant.
“It’s been a dream start for me but I am not getting carried away and I know we have some tough games and some tough challenges ahead.
“I did say it is not impossible but it is far from easy – but we just have to keep setting targets.
“All we can do now is look to close the gap game by game and take care of our business, which we did tonight.
“We have to keep fighting and keep believing and see where that takes us. I’ve told the lads to believe in themselves and have the confidence to express themselves and we did that tonight – if we hadn’t won it would have been a travesty.”
Morecambe did create chances, with Dean Winnard seeing a header cleared off the line and Paul Mullin denied by a flying save from Chris Day who also produced a fine double save late in the game.
Newport could have won by a greater margin had it not been for home keeper Roche who made a host of excellent saves in the first half. The veteran stopper saved superbly from Samuel, Tom Owen-Evans and Sean Rigg in quick succession as Flynn’s side played with a freedom rarely seen this season.
Morecambe did have chances, with Rhys Turner ‘seeing a second-minute shot cleared off the line and Antony Evans flashing a long-range shot against the crossbar with Day beaten.
