MATCH REPORT: Swindon Town (1) Newport County (0)

Luke Jephcott’s second goal as a Swindon Town player gave his team a 1-0 win against Newport County. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam reports on the League Two clash.

Jephcott finally managed to pounce on a rebound from one on Ronan Darcy’s many long range efforts to give Swindon a lead early in the second half.

Swindon largely dominated possession but found few openings against a structured Newport backline that weren’t courtesy of Darcy trying his luck from distance.

The 1-0 win moved Swindon up a position in the table to eighth and level on points with the League Two play-off places.

Scott Lindsey made one alteration from Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Northampton and it was an enforced change at the back with Angus MacDonald missing out through injury and being replaced by Mathieu Baudry, who returned after illness.

Town got off to a very fast start and Newport were struggling to keep up and when Nick Townsend scuffed a kick straight to Louis Reed, he played it to Ronan Darcy and his shot forced a good stop from the Newport goalkeeper.

Newport had managed to turn the tides by 20 minutes and should have been ahead when Baudry played a sloppy ball back to Brynn to set Omar Bogle through, but he shot straight at the Swindon stopper.

They had another chance soon after when Adam Lewis fired in a cross and it went across the face of goal before finding Aaron Lewis beyond the far post, only for him to spurn the chance wide.

Wakeling rippled the side netting soon after as Remeao Hutton got in down the right and picked him out in the middle, but the striker was too far in front of the near post to divert it on target.

After 34 minutes Swindon were almost gifted a goal as a Hutton cross seemed to be an easy catch for Townsend, only for him to drop it in mid-air. Fortunately for him his defenders reacted quickest to clear.

Swindon were back on top at the start of the second half and quickly called Townsend into action as they played a corner short and found Darcy who hit a pile-driver from range that the Newport ‘keeper had to beat to safety.

Darcy was clearly on a high at this point and once again tried his luck from downtown and forced Townsend to parry it clear to the feet of Jephcott who tapped it into the unguarded net.

Jephcott had a chance to make it two when Jonny Williams wriggled into space from a corner and drilled a cross low across goal and picked out the goal scorer only for his shot to be blocked.

Hutton was given even more space after the goal went in and used it in the 81st minute as he came inside and fired a ball into the danger zone towards Jacob Wakeling, but Townsend dove in front of it to prevent the danger.

Ellis Iandolo could have sealed it after coming off the bench, the ball fortuitously dropped to him on the left and he came inside to curl a shot just past the far post.

Newport could have snatched an equaliser in stoppage time as James Waite pulled the ball back to Chanka Zimba only for Hutton to nip back and hack the ball clear on the goal line and make sure Swindon got all three points.