Newport County 2-1 Notts County

Newport hero Mark O'Brien: 'We pushed to the end'

Newport County pulled off an astonishing League Two relegation escape as they beat Notts County.

Despite being 11 points adrift in March, the Exiles instead condemned Hartlepool to the drop to the National League.

A late winner from Mark O'Brien kept Newport up on a dramatic final day.

The home side opened the scoring on 32 minutes when Mickey Demetriou fired home a penalty after Haydn Hollis tripped Lenell John-Lewis in the box.

The visitors levelled things when Jorge Grant prodded home on 61 minutes.

It was a tense, nervous encounter in front of a sell-out crowd at Rodney Parade, with Jon Stead shooting wide for the Magpies just five minutes in, before defender Demetriou, League Two's player of the month for April, made it four goals in his last seven outings from the spot.

Ryan Bird's long-range effort just missed its target and it proved costly as within a minute Grant found space in the box to level things.

But on 89 minutes O'Brien chested the ball down and fired home to spark scenes of wild celebration in south Wales.

Back from the brink

It has been a season of ups and downs for Newport, who have languished towards the bottom of the League Two table for much of the campaign.

The Exiles were bottom of the EFLm with just one win from their first nine league matches when manager Warren Feeney was sacked in September and ex-Stevenage boss Graham Westley came in to replace him.

A initial upturn of form coincided with Westley's arrival as Newport went seven games unbeaten in all competitions, including three successive league wins, in October and November.

That unbeaten run ended, however, as they then went 12 games without a win from November into January.

Off the pitch, club secretary Graham Bean left in December after just three weeks, telling BBC Wales he "could not work" with Westley and days later the Newport boss was initially asked to leave an extraordinary post-match press conference before calling a journalist a "clown" in a heated interview.

The club eventually parted company with Westley on 9 March after their 4-0 defeat by Leyton Orient left them 11 points adrift of safety.

Club legend Mike Flynn, who had been brought back as a player by Westley, took over as manager, with Lennie Lawrence coming in as his assistant as the Exiles began their remarkable turnaround.

Flynn has won seven of his 12 games in charge and it proved enough to save the Welsh side in one of the most memorable survival fights ever in the EFL.

Line-ups
Match Stats
Live Text

Line-ups

Newport

Formation 3-5-2

1Day
17Bennett
25O'Brien
28Demetriou
18Pipe
6LabadieBooked at 73mins
8RandallSubstituted forRiggat 72'minutes
20Owen-EvansSubstituted forWilliamsat 83'minutes
3Butler
40Bird
10John-LewisSubstituted forJacksonat 72'minutes

Substitutes

2Barnum-Bobb
11Myrie-Williams
13Jackson
19Nelson
27Rigg
30Bittner
41Williams

Notts County

Formation 4-4-2

1Collin
23Clackstone
6Hollis
5Duffy
3DickinsonSubstituted forBolaat 58'minutes
47HowesSubstituted forSmithat 58'minutesBooked at 77mins
12Milsom
18Hewitt
17Grant
30Stead
9Ameobi

Substitutes

4Smith
14Campbell
15Thompson
16Bola
24Campbell
28Osborne
35Searson

Referee:: Nigel Miller
Attendance:: 7,326

Match Stats

Home TeamNewportAway TeamNotts County

Possession: Home46%; Away54%

Shots: Home10; Away10

Shots on Target: Home5; Away2

Corners: Home0; Away2

Fouls: Home13; Away8

Live Text

1'
Substitution
Substitution, Newport County. Aaron Williams replaces Tom Owen-Evans.
Post update
Match ends, Newport County 2, Notts County 1.

90'+7'
Full Time
Second Half ends, Newport County 2, Notts County 1.
90'+2'
Post update
Attempt missed. Josh Clackstone (Notts County) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
89'
Goal!
Goal! Newport County 2, Notts County 1. Mark O'Brien (Newport County) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner.
88'
Post update
Marc Bola (Notts County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
88'
Post update
Foul by Mickey Demetriou (Newport County).
86'
Post update
Alan Smith (Notts County) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
86'
Post update
Foul by Marlon Jackson (Newport County).
85'
Post update
Attempt missed. Sean Rigg (Newport County) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
82'
Post update
Attempt missed. Jon Stead (Notts County) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
78'
Post update
Delay in match Elliott Hewitt (Notts County) because of an injury.
77'
Booking
Alan Smith (Notts County) is shown the yellow card.
76'
Post update
Corner, Notts County. Conceded by Mark O'Brien.
73'
Booking
Joss Labadie (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
73'
Post update
Marc Bola (Notts County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
73'
Post update
Foul by Joss Labadie (Newport County).
72'
Substitution
Substitution, Newport County. Sean Rigg replaces Mark Randall.
72'
Substitution
Substitution, Newport County. Marlon Jackson replaces Lenell John-Lewis.
70'
Post update
Marc Bola (Notts County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.

As It Stood

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Portsmouth	46	26	9	11	79	40	39	87
2	Plymouth	46	26	9	11	71	46	25	87
3	Doncaster	46	25	10	11	85	55	30	85

4	Luton	46	20	17	9	70	43	27	77
5	Exeter	46	21	8	17	75	56	19	71
6	Carlisle	46	18	17	11	69	68	1	71
7	Blackpool	46	18	16	12	69	46	23	70

8	Colchester	46	19	12	15	67	57	10	69
9	Wycombe	46	19	12	15	58	53	5	69
10	Stevenage	46	20	7	19	67	63	4	67
11	Cambridge	46	19	9	18	58	50	8	66
12	Mansfield	46	17	15	14	54	50	4	66
13	Accrington	46	17	14	15	59	56	3	65
14	Grimsby	46	17	11	18	59	63	-4	62
15	Barnet	46	14	15	17	57	64	-7	57
16	Notts County	46	16	8	22	54	76	-22	56
17	Crewe	46	14	13	19	58	67	-9	55
18	Morecambe	46	14	10	22	53	73	-20	52
19	Crawley	46	13	12	21	53	71	-18	51
20	Yeovil	46	11	17	18	49	64	-15	50
21	Cheltenham	46	12	14	20	49	69	-20	50
22	Newport	46	12	12	22	51	73	-22	48

23	Hartlepool	46	11	13	22	54	75	-21	46
24	Leyton Orient	46	10	6	30	47	87	-40	36

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21 comments

Well done Newport, hard to believe a 46 game season decided a minute from full time, now that is what you call an escape.
Well done Newport great win. Mike Flynn was already a hero in Newport the bloke needs to be given the freedom of the city after the escape he has just pulled off. Just a shame that the crowd today have not been in attendance all season.
Well done Newport.
Well done Newport!
Fantastic never say die performance! Well done Mike Flynn from a BCFC fan.
Well done Newport. From a Swansea City Fan.
A great escape indeed, and though Hartlepool will obviously be gutted hopefully they'll take heart that they did what they had to today and that it ultimately took a tremendous turnaround from Newport (and a great winner at the death) to see them down. I haven't seen much of League Two this season but there's some good quality there and hopefully both Newport and Hartlepool will do well next year.
Even given Jeff Stelling is a Hartlepool fan, Sky Sports bias against Newport was beyond.
Good luck to Hartlepool next season. Well done Newport, a tremendous effort to turn a seemingly impossible position around.
Congratulations Players, directors, fans but especially the manager. What a turnaround. Keep the form going and let's get in the playoffs. Onwards and upwards
Barley, message 12 - no, there are 13 examples in Europe alone. Nice try, butty!
Congratulations Newport !
Fantastic Newport Country, the great escape far better than the film by a country mile.
Very many congratulations to Newport County. Well done to all. Another visit to non league football avoided. Please don't do that again and leave it, literally, to the last minute. Good luck for next season. All that from a Cardiff born exile!
Congratulations 2 Newport on an excellent fight for survival.
Barley (msg 12), do u remember the last Euro championships? How well Wales did under the current set up. If u put Swansea/Cardiff/Newport in2 the Welsh league (playing Rhyl & Llandudno) there will be no way they can improve. That only happens when you play better teams.Look at Scotland. Rangers/ Celtic & the rest. Wales deserves better
Good to see Newport stay up. See you next season!

The Conference/Whatever is a graveyard of old league teams and you never know what can happen - just look at York City.
Hope Hartlepool can survive.
well done Newport for staying up, not long for the Premier league now you've got our Lennie. But you'll have to go toe to toe with my team next season, good luck with that, you'll need it!!! UTM
nice to see 3 ex-Dunkirk lads travelling with Notts, shame Ozzy didn't get on though.

well done Newport, though
msg 12 and 13,, Newport, Cardiff and Swansea need to play in English leagues as quality of Welsh league wouldn't be able to cope with these teams. But then surely that's an argument to let the top Scottish and Irish teams into our leagues too. Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen could easily do well in the Championship, while Linfield surely are no worse than Newport. Time for a UK league
UP THE PORY
@19 I wouldn't get your hopes up. Newport have been the Sunderland of league 2, poorly run and sacking managers every season. If Mike Flynn got the job full time it wouldn't surprise me if the players just stopped playing for him.

The squad needs a overhaul regardless.

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