Newport County 1-0 Bristol Rovers (League Two)

Rovers suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Newport County's Rodney Parade today courtesy of a Christian Jolley penalty. It was, in truth, a limp Gas performance that warranted nothing from the game but it was a blatantly incorrect call from the referee that handed Jolley the chance to win it for the hosts.

Mildenhall - Lifted from: zimbio.com

Huge numbers of Rovers fans descended upon the ground in anticipation for the first severnside derby in years and the atmosphere was decent considering there was no roof above the seating behind the goal. Newport fans were attempting to sing and it helped provide a noisy environment for the two teams when they emerged from the tunnel. Unfortunately the Rovers players were not able to match the quality of the away support and were totally devoid of attacking quality for the entire 90 minutes. The home side could sense a lack of confidence in our forward play and that immediately handed them the initiative to go on and put our defence under pressure. To be fair to Michael Smith, Tom Parkes, Mark McChrystal and Lee Brown the Exiles were dealt with pretty comfortably in open play but a few silly fouls were committed that handed them the chance to trouble Steve Mildenhall with a set-piece.

All in all our goal didn't come under too much of a barrage although a couple of glancing headers from ex-Gas striker Chris Zebroski almost found the target. The big talking points of the game then began to unfold as the referee made 3 hugely embarrassing decisions. Former Rovers utility man David Pipe, the Newport captain, was attempting to throw his weight around whenever possible but lunged into a tackle with both feet in the air and sent Smith flying. As soon as it happened Gasheads jumped up and demanded what would have been the clearest red card you would see all season but the referee, clearly not wanting to upset the home side, refused to even award a free-kick. John Ward was rightly up in arms and none of the players could believe that such a dangerous tackle went unpunished by the referee. Pipe jogged back into position clearly relieved to have avoided a red card but encouraged by the fact he could get away with lunging tackles.

No more than 2 minutes later, Pipe and another Newport player went in with two feet on Tom Lockyer and sent the young Welshman to the ground in agony. The referee did this time give Rovers a free-kick but merely booked the County player when it was clearly violent play. Rovers fans were gobsmacked that the officials failed to correctly handle both situations. The standard of officiating is woefully bad in the lower leagues at the best of times but when players' safety is put at risk you expect any official to make the correct decision. Clearly this wasn't going to happen at Rodney Parade. Top top it all off the referee then adjudged Tom Parkes to have committed a foul in the box after CLEANLY winning the ball from Jolley and Newport had the chance to go in front. The third former Rovers man in the home ranks then got in on the action as Andy Sandell sent Mildenhall the wrong way with a cool left footed penalty. Even the most optimistic Rovers fans felt resigned to defeat given our lack of attacking flair and we were all proven to be correct.

The second half was marginally better than the first from our perspective but it was by no means a good performance. Wayward passing, long balls, shockingly poor set-pieces and and weakness in the tackle ensured we failed to force an equaliser. Oli Norburn was having a nightmare in central midfield, giving the ball away constantly with his silly long-range glory passes and awful corner deliveries and had to be the Rovers player forfeited when Ryan Brunt was handed a 20 minute cameo. Nobody else had performed worse. Unbelievably John-Joe O'Toole was the man replaced as Brunt's introduction finally meant we had 2 strikers playing together. O'Toole was ineffective in the advanced role but he was retaining the ball in forward areas, unlike Norburn. Still, the game was lost and the best effort we could muster until stoppage time was a long-range strike from Smith that was tipped over the crossbar by Lenny Pidgeley.

In the final seconds we won a corner and Mildenhall decided to gamble and join the party of Rovers players in the Newport penalty area. Another poor cross took a couple of ricochets before rolling just in front of Mildenhall who was only able to get his studs on the ball after stretching every fibre in his body to try and make firm contact. The referee then signalled the end of the game and Rovers supporters left the ground disheartened by the performance they had just witnesses at a rainy Rodney Parade. The injury crisis is the cause of our poor start without question but it doesn't make watching defeats any easier to take.

The boys have to put things right against York City next weekend to get our season going and with the returns of Ryan Brunt, Garry Kenneth and Matt Gill to the first team squad we have every chance of inflicting defeat on the Minstermen.