Stevenage Borough 3, Newport County 1
Graham Westley will eye up Newport County’s next four fixtures and hope his team can at last start a revival which could see them climb the League Two table.
The Exiles are deep in trouble at the foot of the division, five points from safety after suffering eight consecutive League defeats. They have conceded 22 goals in that run of fixtures.
Manager Westley, though, has revamped his squad and gave four players full debuts against his own former club, Stevenage Borough.
He will hope the new boys will start to make their presence felt – and will surely target around eight points from the next four games.
That is a big ask when you consider they take on eighth-placed Colchester United at Rodney Parade and ninth in table Barnet away in their next few fixtures.
But if they can earn some reward from those fixtures they will feel a lot better about themselves when they entertain Hartlepool United, who are 18th, at home and then travel to Cheltenham.
The Robins, from Gloucestershire, are the team immediately above County in the table and a win at Whaddon Road would be a massive boost for Westley’s men.
There were moments of quality from Newport at Stevenage and the away team had 55 per cent of possession, but they were shot down by a hat-trick from Matt Godden.
Borough were 3-0 ahead with just over an hour gone, while substitute Dan Butler netted a late consolation after 79 minutes.
“It was an extremely positive afternoon,” said Westley. “It was always going to be tough at the start because we had five new lads in the side. We went 2-0 down after an error and 3-0 with the soft penalty.
“The boys could have been forgiven, but sides would have dropped their heads and would have gone under.
“But we didn’t. We showed a character. We showed a strength. We showed resilience.
“We showed a willingness to go and get something out of the half and we did. We fought back.”
Westley made six changes from the team who lost at Wycombe with David Pipe, Sid Nelson, Mark O’Brien and Jaanai Gordon making their first appearances.
Scott Bennett, back after injury, slotted in alongside Pipe, Nelson and O’Brien at the back, while Ben Tozer was back in midfield.
Gordon and Aaron Williams were in attack.
It went Darren Jones, Abdoulaye Meite, Paul Bignot and Rhys Healey, who has returned to Cardiff City after his loan spell, while Sean Rigg and Josh Sheehan were ruled out by injuries.
Westley’s plans were disrupted early on when Dennison Myrie-Williams was injury and Dan Butler went on to operate in midfield.
Godden netted his first after nine minutes, while goalkeeper Joe Day made an error on 42 minutes and the Stevenage striker added his second.
When County then conceded a penalty for Butler’s foul it was Godden who stepped up to complete his hat-trick.
Westley, though, will hope the fight and character his players showed will give them hope for the run-in. Butler’s consolation goal was a late moment of success – and now Westley has a week to work with his new group before Colchester United come calling to Rodney Parade next Saturday (3pm).
County: Day; Pipe, O’Brien, Nelson, Bennett; Barnum-Bobb (Reid 71), Randall, Tozer, Myrie-Williams (Butler 3); Gordon (Jackson 55), Williams. Subs not used: Bittner, Meite, Wood, Owen-Evans