FA Trophy 1st Round Saturday 15 December 2007 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm

City’s fifth meeting this season with Newport County ended, for the first time, in disappointment. They had lost the last meeting, however a Setanta Shield defeat could hardly be classed as disappointing, but this time an exit from the FA Trophy was certainly a blow. And although the 3-0 final scoreline was flattering to the home side, City could have few complaints about the result. As had been the case in the first meeting between the sides this season, back at Twerton Park in early September, it was a game of two halves, with City failing to turn their control of the first period into goals, a mistake Newport could certainly not be accused of after the break. City went into the game forced into several changes of personnel, and with a altered formation. With Chris Holland and Justyn McKay suspended, plus Mark McKeever sidelined with a broken rib, manager John Relish went for a rare 3-5-2 formation. Gethin Jones, Jim Rollo and Matt Coupe comprised the back three, with Paul Keddle and Sekani Simpson acting as wing-backs. In midfield Steve Jones made a rare start alongside Adie Harris with Lewis Hogg playing in front of them after passing a late fitness test. Only up front was there a familiar pairing of Darren Edwards and Dave Gilroy.

The game began slowly, matching the drab overcast conditions. The first effort on goal was a tame 20-yard shot from Griffin straight at Paul Evans that summed up his side’s early showing. Both teams were struggling to string more than a couple of passes together, but what little constructive football there was on show tended to come from City. Fittingly, City’s first effort on goal came from Newport giving the ball away. Hogg took advantage of the mistake, cutting inside a defender before firing in a shot from 25-yards that keeper Thompson dived to his left to save. City then had a strong shout for handball right on the edge of the box turned down by the referee, which then lead to Newport breaking up field before Rollo cleared the danger. City’s most attacking threat was coming down their left-flank against a late call up for County’s injured skipper Jenkins, James Simpson. He looked desperately out of his depth but with City missing McKeever to take full advantage of his struggles the home side were not punished. City did win a series of corners but these came to nothing, Harris coming closest with a header over the bar, and too often the space they earned in the middle of the pitch was wasted with a poor final pass or cross. One such break saw a through ball from Edwards just over-hit allowing Thompson to take it off the toes of Keddle. Just before this Griffin had stabbed a clear opening wide of the goal after a long throw dropped to him and Newport did seem to wake up somewhat toward the end of the half – Davies bringing the first difficult save out of either keeper when Evans parried his well-struck effort. As has been common in the previous encounters between the sides there was a melee just before the interval. Fowler’s dangerous over-the-top challenge on Simpson sparked the pushing and shoving but, typically, the weak referee failed to even speak to the Welsh player.

The second half began with Griffin heading an Evans cross narrowly wide and Searle shooting straight at Evans, which signalled the way the rest of the half would pan out. However, before Newport took the lead City wasted a great opportunity to strike first. Keddle’s pass forward sent an offside-looking Gilroy away and he squared the ball to an unmarked Hogg near the penalty spot. To be fair to the midfielder he connected cleanly with his shot only for Thompson to produce a superb block. Within three minutes a goal at the other end of the pitch showed that Hogg may have had more success with a completely mis-hit effort. Twice in the build-up to the goal City were at fault. A weak cross from Hogg was headed out by a Newport defender and from that clearance a long-ball forward lured Rollo into diving in only to miss the ball completely and allow Griffin to race clear. He drew Gethin Jones before picking out Hughes and his scuffed shot somehow evaded Evans to end up in the corner of the net. Typically for Newport this signalled an attempt to slow the game down. All the spare footballs that had been available around the running track were collected up and every time the ball went out of play there was a delay while it was recovered from the wide open spaces of Spytty Park. Therefore, City struggled to regain any momentum and Griffin should have increased Newport’s lead on 56 minutes, heading over from close range. Moments later Keddle won a corner despite several attempts to bring him down and from Hogg’s centre the ball dropped to Coupe, only for the defender to volley high into the cold Newport night. Harris’ challenge on Evans looked worthy of a penalty on the hour-mark but nothing was given, however five minutes later another piece of inexplicable refereeing nearly lead to Newport’s second goal. Ironically, it was Harris who was pulled back but despite the foul leaving him surrounded by opponents the referee waved play-on, allowing them to take possession only for the final shot to fly high over the bar. On 68 minutes though City did find themselves two goals down. Again they were guilty of giving the ball away in midfield which saw Evans cross for Hughes to head home. Relish understandably threw on Scott Partridge and Phil Walsh in an attempt to stage an unlikely recovery. The latter had been a constant thorn in the home side’s side with goals in the previous three Spytty Park encounters but when he headed over a Keddle cross with three minutes remaining it showed that it was not to be City’s day. The final indignity came in stoppage time when Griffin latched on to a Hughes pass to slot the ball past Evans.

So, City’s hopes of a money-spinning FA Trophy run disappeared with a second half performance that merited nothing more. Although the final scoreline of 3-0 was hard on City they could be no disguising that Newport deserved to progress into the 2nd Round and level the overall outcome of the five meetings between the sides – with both claiming two wins alongside the drawn match at Twerton Park.