A night to forget - County cruise to away win

EASTLEIGH v NEWPORT COUNTY
TUESDAY 18th SEPTEMBER 2007

Blue Square South

It was two defeats on the spin for the Spitfires following a dismal display on this Tuesday evening against a well-equipped professional looking outfit, in the form of Newport County.

With David Hughes suffering a nasty blow to the eye socket in the weekend’s 3-1 loss at Hampton and Richmond, Paul Sales was brought back into the team alongside Andy Forbes in attack. Danny Smith dropped to the bench in the only other change to tonight’s starting lineup - Ian Oliver the man coming in.

Just four minutes into the game the early warning signs were there for all to see as Eastleigh started shakily having to hack Julian Alsop’s header off the line on four minutes.

Conceding several early corner kicks, Eastleigh finally broke into County’s half on the counter attack. Andy Forbes brought the play forward with a decent ball to Matt Hann who failed to take advantage of the 2 v 1 situation with a sloppy pass that should have put Damian Scannell through on goal.

James Pullen’s direct kick up the park found Forbes with precision seconds later. Forbes then drew the foul to win a free kick just 20 yards from goal. Andy Harris stepped up, fancying his chances from this range, however his ghastly blast flew horribly high and wide to clear the stand behind the goal.

A Damon Searle free kick ten minutes in, came straight back off the wall at the opposite end. Though the Newport full back played a looping ball back into the danger area to redeem himself with a clever pass for Charlie Griffin who, met the pass with a volley that went just the wrong side of goal.

At this stage it was still fairly open, another long ball from the hosts saw Pullen knock the ball from one end to the other for Forbes to run onto to get into the area. Eastleigh’s top marksman was unlucky to see his effort denied by a good block from Glyn Thompson, the man between the sticks for the visitors, making a good stop rushing out of his goal to show his alert reactions.

The home side came close just a minute later when Paul Sales was held back by Mark Dodds. Chris Piper relieved Harris of the duties to take the free kick and was not far away with the shot. Piper bent the ball around a five-man wall and watched on as his effort flew just a couple of yards wide of the mark. In fairness, Thompson looked to have had it covered anyway.

With just over a third of the half played, Newport County took a nineteenth minute lead through CHARLIE GRIFFIN. Failing to deal with a relatively routine set play to defend against, Eastleigh conceded. The former Wycombe Wanderers forward taking full advantage as he picked up on the loose ball to fire home from eight yards.

Eastleigh came close to an instant reply through Paul Sales. A fine piece of skill from Hann led to the opportunity as he skipped past two defenders before getting to the byline. His perfect cross just seemed to hit Sales, who knew little about it but still the effort wasn’t far wide of goal.

Still in search of that all-important equaliser, the Spitfires finally strung a move of more than two passes together. It was no coincidence that when they did play the ball on the deck that the chances did come as opposed to the long ball. Sales and Piper exchanged passes with a one-touch interchange to work a neat opening. This positive move let down only by a slightly overhit final ball in search of finding Anthony Riviere’s run.

Not for the first time in the game, Eastleigh came forward but lacked that killer instinct in front of goal.

Damian Scannell fired hopelessly over the cross bar, again sending the ball well over the top of the stand much to the amusement of the travelling Newport fans.

Two minutes later Scannell’s wicked cross from the right was headed behind his own goal by Steve Jenkins, the Newport captain. Unfortunately the resulting corner kick came to nothing.

Finishing the half strongly in terms of possession but little else, Eastleigh then saw Andy Harris’ long throw go right across the face of goal. Nobody attacked the ball allowing Newport to come away unscathed. This lack of enthusiasm and hunger in front of goal, just about summing up the frustrations of a dismal nights work thus far.

Unbelievably, the Spitfires saw yet another shot sail woefully over the cross bar. It was beginning to be every shot now, this the third time an Eastleigh player had cleared the stadium. On the plus side, there was nothing wrong with the approach as Anthony Riviere guided his pass to the left of goal to find Matt Hann in acres of space. Waiting for the ball to drop and looking to catch the ball at the right moment, Eastleigh’s latest signing took his eye off the ball at the last second to sky his shot, when really he should have done a lot better.

The half coming to a close, Piper – high up the park, got on to his left foot before sending over an inviting cross to the back post for Forbes who rose well but glanced his header off target on the angle.

HALF TIME: Eastleigh 0-1 Newport County

County called James Pullen into action within minutes of the restart with an excellent, well-worked move that probably deserved a better outcome. Jenkins sent the ball into the box before Julian Alsop’s cushion header was drilled goalwards by Lee Collier and into the legs of Pullen.

Shortly after, arguably Eastleigh’s best move of the game saw Paul Sales come within a whisker of levelling things up. Chris Piper knocked the ball into Andy Harris who kept things simple with a further intricate pass to help the ball on to Sales. The Eastleigh forward made a sharp turn to pick the ball up sublimely with a timely left foot half volley that was not all that far from finding the top left hand corner.

Andy Forbes brought down Ian Oliver’s high ball into the box moments later, before swiftly making his turn and finding room for the shot. In the end Thompson had little trouble in keeping the effort out diving low to his left.

Just short of the hour mark a highly promising run from Scannell saw the tricky winger storm forward with purpose before letting fly from the edge of the area. His effort was turned round the post with a splendid stop to deny the former Fisher Athletic man.

Having raised the tempo in hope of finding a goal, Eastleigh came forward once more with Piper and Riviere’s short, sharp passing falling kindly for Sales on the edge of the area. There was no joy with the outcome yet again, with many beginning to wonder whether Eastleigh would get more points in rugby from the number of chances they squandered, blazing high above goal for a fourth time in the game.

The time for trying to play catch up had caught up with the Spitfires who were fast beginning to run out of steam and ideas. Had they scored in this period when they were on stop, what would yet unfold could have told a whole different story.

With 63 minutes on the clock, superb work down the left by Richard Evans saw the Cardiff born midfielder leave his marker for dead before delivering a telling cross to the centre. Thirty-five year old JASON BOWEN was on hand to head towards goal under little pressure and, with the aid of Luke Byles’ deflection, grabbed his fifth goal of the campaign to double County’s advantage and in reality put the game beyond Eastleigh.

The Exiles were queuing up to make it three nil, eight minutes later with orange shirts surging into the Eastleigh penalty area from all directions.

On 71 minutes, Justin Bennett came on to replace Matt Hann and in all honesty was one of the few bright sparks in the whole Eastleigh team throughout the night in what he showed in his mere nineteen minutes. Looking lively at all times holding up the ball well and just generally looking to make things happen.

Ian Oliver was lucky to escape unpunished as he stood at the edge of the penalty area, expecting James Pullen to come and collect the loose ball. Instead Charlie Griffin stole in on the indecisiveness to force a save out of the Eastleigh stopper.

A solid display from County all round, who never at any point looked in danger of letting the clean sheet let slip, saw the visitors come away with quite possibly the best three points they might pick up this season on their travels.

For David Hughes, Paul Doswell and his team there is another chance to put things right this Saturday at Welling United. Thankfully some might say, we have a whole month before we will play at the Silverlake Stadium again. In which time we could have picked up a good few wins to put this misery well and truly out of our systems.

FULL TIME: Eastleigh 0-2 Newport County

JAMIE MONTIGUE