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Joe Dunne hails hard-working Newport after FA Cup victory over Colchester

05 Nov 2022 3 minute read
Background picture by Pwimageglow (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Newport County assistant Joe Dunne felt his side got the rewards for their work on the training ground following a 2-0 win over Colchester United in the FA Cup.

After an uneventful opening at Rodney Parade, the Exiles got themselves in front when Cameron Norman’s flick went in with a deflection off Colchester goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara.

Will Evans had grabbed the winner for the Exiles when the two sides met at the same venue in League Two two weeks ago, but this time he turned provider to get their second.

After sending substitute Aaron Lewis through on goal, the defender curled beyond O’Hara with a composed finish with 16 minutes left.

“The key thing in these games is to get through to the next round, irrespective of performance,” said Dunne.

“We did that and we are delighted, in the end we did it comfortably. It wasn’t a classic, it was a bit of stodgy game at times but in the second half we really got on the front foot and did well.

“There were one or two good moments that we could’ve finished off. We had a free week and were able to work on getting more combinations in our game, we certainly saw that with the second goal.

“We could’ve scored a third and always looked a threat on the counter-attack when they had to come out, leaving spaces and gaps.”

Giant killings

Newport, who have enjoyed plenty on giant-killings in this competition in recent years, fell out in the first round against Morecambe last season, but Colchester failed to cause enough issues to make them suffer the same fate this time around.

Alan Judge’s tame header in the second half was the only time County goalkeeper Joe Day was called into action.

Colchester manager Matt Bloomfield issued an apology to the travelling U’s contingent following another defeat in a miserable run of form, which has seen them take two wins out of 10 since he took over.

“I’ll front it up and take the responsibility on my shoulders as much as I can because I’m a resilient character,” said Bloomfield.

“I apologise to all the supporters who made the trips to Barrow and Newport recently because we’ve come away with nothing.

“I genuinely really feel for them because I’m a football fan myself, so I know they’re hurting and I’m not going to hide behind any excuses.

“All I know is we’ll keep working because we know where we need to improve. There’s plenty that we need to do.”


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