Wales international George Williams stunned Newport County by scoring a hat-trick for Forest Green Rovers at Rodney Parade.
Williams, aged 23, sent County tumbling to a 4-1 League Two home defeat and said: “I could not have asked for a better Christmas present than three points and a hat-trick.
“My family were at the game and my little boy was in tears. I was delighted to take the ball home. I’m boxing.”
Newport’s Severnside rivals Forest Green were ecstatic with their win, while manager Michael Flynn and his Exiles were devastated.
“I was genuinely absolutely gutted for the fans because it’s Christmas, they spent their money to come here and we let them down by playing poorly,” said Flynn.
http://https://youtu.be/vOl3YQTML1A
“We changed some of the matchday warm-up preparations because we hadn’t been starting games the right way recently.
“It didn’t matter what we did differently because we started poorly. It’s simple things like blocking their runner from the kick-off and not giving away cheap free-kicks.
“We knew George Williams has good quality on his free-kicks.
“It took a deflection and we were 1-0 down after two and a half minutes again. It’s too much to do because we’re not good enough at the moment to keep coming from behind.
“Our defending for the second goal was really poor from start to finish.
“But we then got back into the game, had the lifeline and went looking to start the second half positively.
http://https://youtu.be/eTgAFBiwbRU
“Then we went down to 10 men and Williams puts another free-kick into the top corner. Rovers absolutely dominated after that and if I’m honest, the saving graces were that the players kept at it and no goals went in after the fourth.”
Williams and Tahvon Campbell scored first half goals for Forest Green, while Padraig Amond reduced the arrears from a penalty during first half injury time.
The dismissal of Dan Butler just after the break followed by another beautifully struck Williams free-kick from 35-yards put Rovers in complete command.
Williams completed his hat-trick just before the hour and the 4-1 defeat saw County fall to 11th in the League Two table, four points off the play-off places.
Flynn made three changes to his starting side and set up his team 3-4-1-2. Mickey Demetriou was fit enough to return in defence, Joss Labadie started for the first time since March and Tyreeq Bakinson was back in the starting line-up.
Robbie Willmott, Mark O’Brien and Antoine Semenyo were all among the substitutes. Labadie, though, came off after only eight minutes with Willmott taking over.
After four appearances from the bench Labadie was given his first start in nine months, but went off with a knee injury.
“He’ll have a scan,” said Flynn. “Before the game, our physio and the doctor were happy and it’s just one of those things.
“That’s why we have to be careful. We thought Joss was right, he passed all the tests, played 30-35 minutes in previous games and we thought we’d get an hour out of him.
“Before the injury you could see he was breaking up the play and that’s what he brings to the team. Fingers crossed it’s just one of those things and we’ll just have to manage it a bit more now.”
Now County turn to their home match against Crawley Town at Rodney Parade in Saturday, a fixture which will be Flynn’s 100th in charge of the Exiles.
Newport County AFC (3-4-1-2): Day, Pipe, Franks, Demetriou, Bennett, Butler, Dolan (O’Brien 59), Bakinson, Labadie (Willmott 8), Amond, Matt (Semenyo 80). Subs not used: Townsend, Marsh-Brown, Harris, Sheehan
Forest Green Rovers (3-5-2): Montgomery, Shephard, Rawson, Gunning, McGinley (Collins 75), Mills, James (capt), Winchester, Rawson, Williams (Grubb 62), Campbell (Reid 72). Subs not used: Worthington, Thomas, Archibald, Morris.
Referee: John Busby
Attendance: 4,213 (356 away)
County conclude 2018 with a home match against Crawley Town. Buy tickets for that fixture.
ON THE ROAD | The Exiles start 2019 with a trip on New Year’s Day to Hertfordshire to take on Stevenage. Ticket details can be found here.
AFTER THAT | County face the prospect of hosting former Premier League Champions Leicester City in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round. More ticket information can be found here.