Newport County 1, Morecambe 0: Away day blues continue for Shrimps

Derek Adams’s side, without the injured A-Jay Leitch-Smith and the suspended Adam Phillips, struggled to find their feet on a horrendous playing surface that made it almost impossible to play any decent football.

As a result chances at both ends were few and far between and Newport took the points with a scrappy goal midway through the second half from Dale Gorman.

With 22 minutes remaining Morecambe keeper Christoffer Mafoumbi parried a left wing Newport cross to the edge of the area which landed perfectly for Gorman to lob the ball into the top corner of the Shrimps’ goal despite the best efforts of a crowd of bodies on the line.

The goal sparked the Shrimps into life as they looked to get back into the game. Boss Adams brought on Harvey Bradbury and Rhys Oates, for his first taste of action since October, and the two began to cause the home defence some problems.

Oates saw Tom King turn a shot around the post before Bradbury was denied an injury time leveller when his effort beat King but was cleared off the line.

The first half saw few chances on a mud bath of a pitch that had hosted a rugby match the night before.

Newport had the first effort of any note in the fourth minute when Matty Dolan’s free kick from the edge of the area curled around the Morecambe wall but was easily saved by Cristoffer Mafoumbi.

The Shrimps hit back with Jordan Cranston firing well over from 20 yards out and Toumani Diagouraga unable to bundle home a Jordan Slew pull back after good work from the stand-in striker.

Newport tried their luck again from distance with Robbie Willmott again shooting straight at Mafoumbi after cutting in from the right.

The closest either side came to a goal came from an unusual source as Mafoumbi’s long clearance almost embarrassed Newport keeper Tom King who got his bearings all wrong and had to palm away the ball at full stretch while back peddling.

Overall it was a day to forget with the only consolation being Stevenage’s defeat at Crewe which leaves the Shrimps still 10 points clear of the bottom club with nine games of the season remaining.

Newport: King, Haynes, Bennett, Inniss, Demetriou, Gorman, Willmott, Dolan, Sheehan, Matt, Abrahams (rep Green 62). Subs not used: Howkins, Amond, Collins, Waters, Khan, Woodiwiss.

Morecambe: Mafoumbi, Cooney, Old, Lavelle, Cranston, Kenyon (rep Brewitt 87), Diagouraga, O’Sullivan, Mendes-Gomes (rep Bradbury 67), Wildig, Slew (rep Oates 80). Subs not used: Halstead, Conlan, Mbulu.

Referee: N Hair.

Attendance: 3, 048.