THE MATCH
Steve Evans’ starting lineup showed just two changes from side beaten by MK Dons in midweek as Yusuf Akhamrich came in for his first league start, and his home debut, and skipper Alfie Kilgour returned after injury. The players to make way were Joel Senior and Taylor Moore.
There was an early opportunity for the visitors when Ciaran Brennan headed into the side netting following Anthony Glennon’s corner. That was almost as good as it got for the Welsh side.
Rovers, though, hit back strongly and in the 11th minute Rovers took the lead with a tunning goal by Akhamrich. Shortly after seeing a shot blocked, the Spurs loanee gained possession on the edge of the area after Newport failed to clear a Jack Sparkes corner and rifled a curling left foot shot into the top corner of the net.
Ryan de Havilland then saw a deflected shot drift just wide of the upright while Riley Harbottle glanced a header wide of the target before Akhamrich scored his, and Rovers’, second goal of the afternoon. A delightful crossfield ball from Alfie Kilgour saw the loanee take a sublime first touch before slotting a shot past goalkeeper Jordan Wright.
A Sparkes effort was deflected over the bar as Rovers went in search of a third goal before the break. It didn’t arrive, but Gasheads showed their appreciation of a much improved first half performance as the players left the pitch.
Although Newport rallied after the break, their second half showing wasn’t a great deal better than their first half performance and Brad Young enjoyed a trouble free afternoon though he did make one comfortable save from Bobby Kamwa.
Akhamrich fired a free kick straight at Wright as he sought to mark his first Rovers game at The Mem with a hat trick, but it wasn’t to be and he was substituted with ten minutes of the contest remaining, leaving the pitch to a standing ovation.
Rovers wrapped things up with two minutes remaining when Shaq Forde found Fabrizio Cavegn in space and the striker cut inside before firing a shot past Wright to register his 14th goal of the season in all competitions.
That win has been a long time coming; since 27th September, in fact, but what was impressive in this game was the way that Evans set his team up. They challenged for every ball and stuck to their game plan while the playing of Clinton Mola in the middle of the park seems to have given him a new lease of life. Often criticised when playing as a central defender, he has comfortably slotted into a midfield role and here had, arguably, his best game in a Rovers shirt.
It’s only one game, but with Evans promising additions to his squad before the closing of the transfer window, there are reasons to be optimistic about the chances of climbing away from the lower reaches of the league.
WHAT WAS SAID
‘It’s been a fantastic day all round. I think I’ve said every home game, I said to Paul before we came out for the game today, I said, ‘look at this support when we’re third bottom of the Football League.’ It’s just incredible, and the noise levels were incredible all the way through the afternoon. For me, the team is the big winner with the three points. Matched equally by the fans, I said, ‘give the fans a reason to really be loud and proud and get behind their club again and get behind this team.
‘They’ve had a lot of dark days, and I’ve had them here as well and I’ve not provided for supporters, so I think we win on the pitch and off the pitch, and credit to the Newport fans, they’ve turned up in big numbers. I know what that club means to the chairman and the people there, but today was about us.
‘I think Yusuf is a special talent, you know. I tried to take him to Rotherham United in League One a year ago and I spoke to the people, senior people at Tottenham and they obviously feed it back to you that he’s in his development stage, he’s not ready to come out into the Football League and we’re going to continue to develop him. But like you do, I’ve been and watched lots of games, including Yusuf at Tottenham. I actually sat here here at The Mem in that exciting game with Spurs U-21s and Yusuf was a different gear altogether and I thought, he’s got to be ready.’ Rovers Head Coach Steve Evans
‘I’m buzzing. I’m so excited. I’m just trying to take it all in. It feels crazy right now and my emotions are so high, but I’m just buzzing. I’m so happy with my full debut. From what I can remember, I took a touch inside and I thought ‘just hit it as hard as you can’, and thankfully I hit it and it went in. I had a shot blocked just before that. I love cutting inside, shooting and working the goalkeeper. If I can’t shoot then I’ll try to cross but obviously, on this occasion, it opened up nicely for me to shoot so I just hit it.
‘The second goal, it was a brilliant pass from Alfie. I was waiting for that pass because the space was there and as it came over, I just took it in my stride and got the ball in my path. I hit it when I got close to the goal and I was buzzing. I just try and take every game as it comes. I just want to do what I do best. I don’t want to think about it too much. I just try to do what I do on the training pitch and bring it into the game.
Scoring and playing today was genuinely amazing. The fans, they were top. Hopefully I can score many more goals here in front of them and get them excited. I heard them singing my name towards the end. It was unreal, honestly. Hopefully as more games come and the season moves on, I’ll hear it even more.’ Rovers Goalscorer Yusuf Akhamrich
‘As long as we stick together, we’ll be alright. There are still 18 games to go. We can’t split up; we must stick together now. We understand the position we are in. This result is very poor, but we must now remember the good things we’ve done in games and recall the moments we have played well.
‘Today we made too many bad errors and gave away two cheap goals. We didn’t clear our lines. We are not making it easy for ourselves. It’s time for us to put talk into practice during games. It’s the same old story. We need to be better with the ball and know just when in games to play.
Our second half performance today showed what we are capable of, but we are chasing too many games. Maybe we’d want another one or two more players. It’s getting a bit short of time now, though. Any new players coming in would need time to adapt into how we play.’ Newport Boss Christian Fuchs
