After suffering narrow defeat at Rodney Parade on Saturday, Iron full-back James Perch gave iFollow Iron his thoughts on the game post-match.
In what was a close game, the Iron can consider themselves unfortunate not to have walked away with at least a share of the points, Perch said: “It’s tough to take that one, I’m sure anyone who came to watch would say neither team was great.
“I think a point would’ve been a fair result, but we didn’t get it, which is what makes this league so hard. I don’t think either side really deserved to win and when it’s like that, it makes it even harder to take.”
Breaking down the complexion of the game, Perch stated: “I think second half we probably edged it, but in the first half it was 50/50. They put a lot of balls into our box which can be difficult to defend when you put six or seven men in there.
“We had a few chances in the second half, and passed the ball a bit better. Towards the end I think we could’ve nicked a point, at least.”
After a relatively even first half, Newport scored with one of the last kicks of the half, which the Iron quickly responded to in the second period.
“There were no clear cut chances (in the first half), I know they had a chance in the first ten or so seconds, but other than that it was just long balls being pumped into our box, which we knew about.
“They’ve been winning games at home, and it’s because of their effective style of play.”
The Iron’s goal came in unusual fashion, eventually going in off an amber shirt in Mark O’Brien, but Perch believes there was more to it than just the finishing touch.
“It was good play in the build-up. The ball was down the left hand side and it got switched to me, I had a lot of space to put a ball in (the box), so I whipped it behind the back four and luckily it went in as an own goal.
“I just tried to put a ball into an area where they could make a mistake, and they did.”
It’s a quick turnaround for the Iron, looking ahead to Exeter City at home on Tuesday night, and Perch is confident despite this afternoon’s outcome.
“We’re going to take to the positives out of today, and especially the second half. It’s important we carry on playing the way we have at home because we’ve been quite good.
“Exeter will know that, they’ll come and work hard. They’re quite high up in the league because they’re a good side, but we’ll take on anyone at home, we’re certainly not scared of any teams.”
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