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Match Reports

REPORT | Exiles suffer defeat against Norwich City Under-21s in EFL Trophy

6 October 2020

Match Reports

REPORT | Exiles suffer defeat against Norwich City Under-21s in EFL Trophy

6 October 2020

A Tyrese Omotoye hat-trick saw Newport County AFC fall to a heavy defeat against Norwich City Under-21s in the EFL Trophy.

The teenage striker opened the scoring inside two minutes and added a further two after the break to seal his treble.

Matthew Dennis and Josh Martin added gloss to the scoreline late on to condemn County to a second consecutive defeat in the competition.

Michael Flynn named an entire new XI from the victory over Mansfield Town over the weekend and made five changes from the defeat to Cheltenham Town in the opening game of the EFL Trophy.

Scot Bennett and Lewys Twamley came into the side from that 1-0 loss last month while there were debuts for Bradley Webb, Callum Ryan-Phillips and Kevin Ellison.

It was a slow start for the Exiles as they struggled to contain an energetic Canaries attack and Omotoye fired the visitors ahead early on. It almost got even worse as Dennis rounded Tom King to slot home a second minutes later but the offside flag came to County’s rescue.

The hosts regrouped and thought they should have had a penalty when Padraig Amond and Ellison both went down in the box under strong challenges but referee Will Finnie ignored the appeals.

The experience of Amond and Ellison were causing the youthful Norwich backline problems while Joe Woodiwiss started to assert himself in a rare midfield outing before he moved back into defence shortly after the half-hour mark when Zach Maher replaced Bennett to make his County debut.

The free-flowing football returned as the hosts started to dictate the play but they couldn’t turn their possession into chances, meanwhile, Martin reminded them of the threat Norwich possessed with a fierce drive that King tipped round the post.

The second half started just like the first as Norwich came out after the restart firing and Omotoye met Rob Nizet’s cross at the near post to poke the ball beyond King.

A mazy run from Dennis saw him dance through the County defence and arrow a shot just wide of the post before Andrew Omobamidele headed over from close range as Norwich searched for a third.

Saikou Janneh went close to reducing the deficit when he latched onto a long ball and lifted it over the stranded Daniel Barden but there was too much power on the effort and the ball landed on the roof of the net.

Omotoye put the result beyond doubt with a curling effort that saw him claim the match ball before Dennis added a superb effort of his own.

Flynn handed Harrison Bright his debut for the final 10 minutes but Martin had the last word as he fired in a fifth from the spot to round off a difficult evening for the home side.

Newport County AFC: Tom King; Callum Ryan-Phillips, Scot Bennett (Zach Maher 32'), Bradley Webb; Ash Baker, Robbie Willmott (Harrison Bright 79'), Joe Woodiwiss, Lewys Twamley; Padraig Among (C) (Ryan Hillier 68'), Saikou Janneh, Kevin Ellison.

Substitues not used: Callum Brain, Tristan Abrahams.


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