Newport made it 2 wins in 5 days with a convincing Wessex Division 1 victory over Amesbury Town on Saturday 24th January at the Zilch Waste Stadium (Westwood Park).
Buoyed by their midweek success at Blackfield & Langley, Newport started brightly and almost took an early lead when Ji Nash saw an effort blocked in the opening minutes. The momentum then swung briefly in the visitors’ favour, with Amesbury almost capitalising on a defensive error.
The remainder of the first half largely belonged to the away side, with Newport indebted to goalkeeper Leon Pitman, who made a number of important interventions to keep the hosts level. Port nearly went in front just before the interval when Nash was upended outside the penalty area, but the resulting free kick narrowly missed the head of Maca Watterson.
The conditions worsened dramatically during the break as heavy rain swept across Westwood Park.
Half Time: Newport IW 0-0 Amesbury Town
The game turned decisively in Newport’s favour early in the second half. On 51 minutes, Jez Conway was fouled nearly 30 yards from goal and player-manager Joe Butcher stepped up to curl a superb free kick into the top corner to break the deadlock (1-0).
Just 3 minutes later, Nash doubled the advantage, finding himself one-on-one and showing great composure to slide the ball home (2-0). The forward was soon involved again, winning a penalty on 58 minutes before calmly converting it himself to put the result beyond doubt (3-0).
With the points secured, Newport emptied the bench but continued to press. Mazambara was denied by the visiting goalkeeper on 77 minutes before firing narrowly wide a minute later, while Nash was denied a hat-trick late on when his effort struck the upright.
Full Time: Newport IW 3-0 Amesbury Town
Newport: Pitman, Hancott (Young), Watterson, Holbrook, Thompsett (Benford), Lamb, Grace (Linington), Conway (Cant), Walsh, Butcher (Mazambara), Nash Man-of-the-match: Keelan Walsh
The win keeps Newport 10th in Wessex Division 1 with 35 points from 20 games, cutting the gap to the play-off places to 9 points and with as many as 8 games in hand on teams above them. Elsewhere, fixtures involving Cowes Sports and East Cowes Victoria were both postponed due to waterlogged pitches.
Port are next in action on Tuesday evening when they face Romsey Town at Westwood Park, with kick off at 19:45.
