Ton-Up Flynn’s County Have Big Plans In New Year

Ton-Up Newport County manager Michael Flynn reflected on their goalless draw against Crawley Town and said: “We kept a clean sheet and there are quite a few positives to build on.”

The clash with Crawley was Flynn’s 100th match in charge of his home city club he heads into 2019 feeling reasonably about their season.

They are four points outside the League Two play-off spots, travel to play Stevenage on New Year’s Day and will then turn to the Emirates FA Cup third round tie against Leicester City.

Flynn or his assistant, former Cardiff City manager Lennie Lawrence, will surely be ringing Cardiff City’s Neil Warnock for a run-down on their cup task against the Foxes.

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The Bluebirds won 1-0 at Leicester and Warnock will be able to give County’s management a valuable insight into the task they face next Saturday.

Newport entertained a Crawley team who had suffered five successive defeats and Flynn said during his post-match media conference: “We were the only team to try and win it really.

“Crawley came for the counter-attack, wanted to stop their rot and that’s what they managed to do.

“But we missed too many chances in the second half.”

Padraig Amond went closest to scoring for County, dinking the ball over Crawley goalkeeper Glenn Morris and his effort was just too high.

Irishman Amond also had two good headed chances, but each time his effort was too close to Morris.

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Crawley appealed for a late penalty when Dominic Poleon went down, but referee Antony Coggins waved play on.

The point lifted Exiles up one place in the League Two table to 10th, four points off the play-off positions and 14 behind leaders Lincoln City.

Flynn made three changes to the starting side following their home defeat against Forest Green, but kept to the usual 3-4-1-2 formation.

One was enforced with midfield player Joss Labadie ruled out by a knee injury and his place was taken by returning captain Andrew Crofts.

Tyler Forbes and Robbie Willmott also returned, while David Pipe and Tyreeq Bakinson were among the substitutes.

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Crawley manager Gabriele Cioffi matched Flynn by also making three changes to his side that suffered an agonising late defeat at Cambridge United on Boxing Day.

Former Newport player Reece Grego-Cox was in Crawley’s team and he tested goalkeeper Joe Day with a powerful header from a looping corner kick after 14 minutes.

Both teams are lacking confidence and there were few chances at either end. 

County had the edge during the second half, but Crawley stood firm to earn an away point.

Newport County AFC (3-4-1-2): Day, Forbes (Harris 78), Franks, Bennett, Demetriou, Butler, Crofts, capt (O’Brien 51), Dolan (Bakinson 57), Willmott, Amond, Matt. Subs not used: Townsend, Pipe, Marsh-Brown, Sheehan

Crawley Town (3-5-2): Morris, Doherty, McNerney, Connolly, Francomb, Sesay, Payne, Bulman (capt), Camara, Grego-Cox (Gambin 77), Poleon. Subs not used: Mersin, Maguire, N’Gala, Allarakhia, Nathaniel-George

Referee: Antony Coggins

Attendance: 3,166 (80 away)

League Two table

		Team	P	GD	Pts
1		Lincoln City	24	21	50
2		MK Dons	24	16	44
3		Mansfield	23	18	42
4		Colchester	25	11	42
5		Bury	25	17	40
6		Forest Green	24	13	40
7		Exeter	25	8	40
8		Carlisle	25	10	39
9		Tranmere	25	6	38
10		Newport	24	-6	36
11		Oldham	25	5	35
12		Stevenage	25	-2	35
13		Grimsby	25	-2	34
14		Swindon	25	-5	33
15		Crewe	25	-5	31
16		Northampton	25	-2	30
17		Port Vale	25	-7	28
18		Crawley	24	-8	27
19		Cheltenham	24	-9	26
20		Morecambe	25	-14	26
21		Yeovil	23	-1	24
22		Cambridge	25	-19	23
23		Macclesfield	25	-20	20
24		Notts County	25	-25	20