Irish Striker Padraig The Century Man Lifts Newport

Irish striker Padraig Amond netted the 102nd goal of his career and earned Newport County a point in their final League Two fixture of the season.

Amond headed a first half equaliser, his 15th goal of the season, in a 1-1 draw against Carlisle United at Brunton Park.

Newport have finished 11th in the table and manager Michael Flynn is looking to build on that next season, while Carlisle are searching for a new manager.

Keith Curle is leaving the club after three and a half years in charge. His team finished one place above County in 10th after a 16th draw in 2017-18.

Newport County striker Padraig Amond, Pic: Getty Images.

“It was a good end-of-season game,” said Flynn. “The first 10 or 15 minutes were a bit worrying because I thought we were not intense enough.

“But the guys picked it up, we scored and the players were excellent. It was a highly professional performance.

“The fans were brilliant. They’ve been absolutely superb and 270 travelling to Carlisle is massive.”

“It’s been a decent season.”

Former England defender Curle, who worked alongside Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock at Sheffield United 18 years ago, is moving on.

Former Cardiff City manager Lennie Lawrence now coaches alongside Newport County team boss Michael Flynn. Pic: Getty Images.

Carlisle have finished to 20th, 10th, sixth and 10th under his leadership.

In a game full of chances for both teams Carlisle opened the scoring after 13 minutes when Mark Ellis headed in from Danny Grainger’s corner.

Amond’s goal came after Robbie Willmott fired in a cross and the striker finished clinically.

Flynn made two changes to the starting line-up who lost at Chesterfield in midweek. Mark O’Brien returned to the starting line-up after being absent in the last few games through a toe injury, taking over from injured Ben White.

The other change saw Ben Tozer return after recovering from the illness that kept him out last time out, taking the place of Aaron Collins.

County set up in a 4-4-2 formation, while they were only able to name five substitutes and one of those was Academy graduate Momodou Touray.

Player of the year Dan Butler in action against Spurs. Pic: Getty Images.

Dan Butler was captain on his 100th Newport appearance, while coach Lennie Lawrence dashed from spending the evening at Cardiff City’s Cancer Research Wales evening on Friday to be with the Newport team.

Newport County: Day, Butler (capt), O’Brien (Collins 58), Demetriou, Reid, Sheehan (Touray 79), Tozer, Dolan, Willmott, Nouble, Amond (Pipe 90). Subs not used: Bittner, Jackson.

Carlisle United: Bonham, Grainger (capt, Parkes 45), Hill (Lambe 74), Ellis, Liddle, Bennett, Campbell-Ryce (O’Sullivan 64), Joyce, Jones, Nadesan, Devitt. Subs not used: Miller, Brown, Stockton, Twardek

Referee: Mark Heywood

Attendance: 5,311 (270 away).

 

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