By Terry Phillips
Teenager Tom Owen-Evans has had his first goal in the Football League wiped from the record books – after Newport County’s match against Morecambe was abandoned at half-time.
The 19-year-old struck with a magnificent volley into the top corner after 26 minutes and County led 1-0 at the break, but referee Brendan Malone called a halt with heavy rain falling and surface water unable to drain away.
Newport stay bottom of League Two, four points from safety with a game in hand, and now go to play Crawley Town in Sussex on Saturday.
“It’s a sickener for Tom – he’s sitting in there with his head in his hands,” said Newport manager Graham Westley. “He can’t believe it’s happened to him, but he’ll score plenty more and plenty like that.
“It is what it is,. The game is off and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“I thought the first half of football was as good as we’ve been for a while.
“We were intelligent on the surface, competed well and scored an unbelievable goal.
“If the ball got stuck in one of those difficult areas and we conceded a goal because of it then you’d feel pretty aggrieved so in that respect you’d have to be honest and say the right decision was made.”
“The referee has had no choice really,” said Morecambe manager Jim Bentley. “There was certainly a broken leg out there, if we weren’t careful. You could see in areas that the ball was not rolling.
“The referee has to think of the players’ safety – there were a few tasty tackles going in, a couple of bookings and scuffles, it was a proper battle.
“Their kid’s goal is an outstanding strike, but it was not playable 20 minutes in. It was the right decision.”
The pitch at Rodney Parade, also used by rugby’s Newport Gwent Dragons, has had long-standing drainage problems.
A match against Barnet was abandoned in September and that was followed by the postponement of a League Two fixture when Stevenage were due to face County in October.
Emergency drainage work was carried out on the pitch in early October with a new drainage system due to be installed in the summer of 2017.
County (v Morecambe): Day; Barnum-Bobb, Jones, Bennett, Myrie-Williams; Tozer, Labadie, Owen-Evans; Sheehan; O’Hanlon, Jackson. Subs not used: Bittner, Compton, Bignot, Green, Healey, Wood, Meite.
Referee: Brendan Malone.