County never got going at Hampton’s picturesque Beveree Stadium in the leafy London suburbs on a hot sticky Saturday more conducive to poolside relaxation.

Most of the large travelling following were probably confident of a good outcome from this Blue Square South game against a side managed by former West Ham United and England midfield player Alan Devonshire, who won last season’s Isthmian League title.  Hampton were big and strong, and played with three at the back, so the intention should have been to play with the width of the pitch and drag them out of position.

However theory and practice do not always match up in football and Jason Bowen and Sam O’Sullivan were unable to get going down the flanks.  So with full-backs Steve Jenkins and Damon Searle rarely crossing the halfway line, County’s attacking play was too narrow and Alan Inns at the back for Hampton gobbled up every aerial ball hit forwards.  Consequently for the most part we watched two sides playing direct football and it was a very disappointing spectacle.

Defensively County were rarely threatened until the closing stages and Nathan Davies worked tirelessly to win the ball in midfield, but Lee Fowler could not match his work with creativity and he all too often lost possession by turning into defenders with the ball.  However, Fowler gave the fans a glimpse of what he can achieve with the game’s best piece of skill when he set himself up for a shot in the 74th minute which Matt Lovett in the home goal saved well diving to his right.  Five minutes earlier Charlie Griffin had chipped an effort from 20 yards against the crossbar and Peter Beadle could be understood for thinking he needed to go for broke by sending on Julian Alsop and playing with three forwards.

However, whether that move unbalanced County is open to debate, but Hampton spent most of the remainder of the game camped in Exiles territory.  The Newport goal had a charmed life as the home side forced 12 second half corners, most of them in this closing spell, and Glyn Thompson started to show himself a worthy successor in what is becoming a noble recent tradition of fine County keepers.

Thompson made some excellent saves, none better than his diving effort to push away an Elliott Godfrey free-kick, though he was also grateful to Searle and Griffin for some goalline clearances.  County were by now hanging on for a point though it was hard to understand how a daydreaming Searle allowed an innocuous cross from home substitute Elliott Frost to strike his raised arm.  The award of a penalty was probably one of the most obvious we are likely to see and referee Kevin Johnson immediately and quite correctly pointed to the spot.  However this sparked fury among the County defenders who in turn pointed to the referee’s assistant, delaying the taking of the 84th minute penalty.

Lee Jarman was cautioned for his protest and whether the mind games had any effect on the penalty taker Ryan Lake is another matter for conjecture because Thompson guessed right and appeared to have saved a poorly struck shot which somehow squirmed its way into the net.  It was an ugly goal to settle a game which was anything but beautiful.

Hampton continued to hold the upper hand and Frost hit the post and Stuart Lake headed past an unguarded net before, deep into injury time, a Searle cross shot rebounded from the crossbar to almost rescue a undeserved point.

Man of the Match:  Hampton: Alan Inns (dominated County’s forwards).

County (joint award): Glyn Thompson (faultless), Nathan Davies (reliable as ever).