Newport County 1, Yeovil Town 0
Mike Flynn and his Exiles have found hope where there appeared to be none.
Newport County earned a third successive 1-0 win, having beaten Crawley, Exeter and Yeovil, to move closer to fellow relegation battlers.
Their recovery under caretaker manager Flynn continued when Mickey Demetriou’s second-half free-kick, struck with his left foot earned victory.
The Exiles remain second from bottom in League Two, but they are now only one point behind Hartlepool with four matches remaining.
Cheltenham Town are two points ahead of County.
Newport were bottom of the table and 11 points adrift of safety when Flynn took over from Graham Westley in early March.
Demetriou’s goal, scored just before the hour, almost lifted County out of the relegation zone.
Hartlepool, where former Cardiff City manager Dave Jones is in charge, were losing 1-0 at home against Carlisle United and at that stage Newport were third from bottom on the live table.
But Hartlepool equalised to stay just in front of their rivals.
The next test for Newport is at Plymouth Argyle, who need one point to be sure of promotion to League One. That match is on Bank Holiday Monday (3pm).
Cheltenham are at home against Grimsby Town on Monday (1pm), while Hartlepool travel to bottom club Leyton Orient (3pm).
One factor which will give Flynn’s team a little extra belief is that Hartlepool and Cheltenham still have to play each other at Whaddon Road in Gloucestershire.
Newport had Sean Rigg back in their squad after injury and he went on for the second half, replacing Mark O’Brien. They were, though, without suspended captain Joss Labadie.
Referee Dean Whitestone added six minutes of injury time which had Newport nerves jumping a little, but the home team held on to make it nine points out of nine from their last three fixtures.
Newport County: Day, Pipe, O’Brien (Rigg 46), Bennett, Demetriou, Butler, Randall (Jones 85), Rose, Owen-Evans, Samuel (Williams 90+5), Bird
Subs not used: Barnum-Bobb, Myrie-Williams, Bittner, Gordon.
Yeovil Town: Maddison, Shephard, Smith, Lacey, Dickson, Khan (Aka-Akpro 59), Dolan, Dawson, Butcher (Lawless 74), Sowunmi (Harrison 65), Zoko. Subs not used: Mugabi, Lawless, Eaves, Goodship, James.
Referee: Dean Whitestone
Attendance: 3,789.
