Newport County 1 Plymouth Argyle 3: Match report

Luke McCormick celebrated his 300th Pilgrimage by leading Argyle to victory in South Wales on a day when the spotlight unexpectedly shone more on his former understudy.

County substitute goalkeeper James Bittner, who made one start in his Home Park career served as back-up to McCormick, was thrust into the action after Newport No. 1 Joe Day was sent off for fouling Jordan Slew seven minutes before half-time.

Graham Carey sent Bittner the wrong way from the subsequent penalty, and repeated the dose ten minutes after the interval with his second spot-kick following a trip on him by Darren Jones.

It was a timely conversion, given that bottom-of-the-table County had levelled five minutes earlier with a shot from veteran forward Jon Parkin of which any of the world’s great strikers would have been proud.

Once ahead for the second time, the Sky Bet League Two leaders never looked like being head again and Slew rounded off their excursion across teh Severn with a third 12 minutes from time.

Argyle manager Derek Adams had made just one change to the side that had lined up in the Pilgrims’ previous two games, bringing Craig Tanner into the attack in place of Jake Jervis. The on-loan Reading man was given the hole role behind striker Jimmy Spencer, with Carey to his right.

Tanner was soon in the thick of things, latching on to a delightfully cushioned header from Spencer following Ben Purrington’s thoughtful ball into the box, but his shot failed to exercise Day.

Argyle had talked about expecting their hosts to come out hard in their first home game under new manager Graham Westley and they were not disappointed as County won a succession of corners which suggested that the gaffer’s initial training sessions had placed an emphasis on set-piece chicanery.

While more than half of the Pilgrims’ goals this season have come from dead-balls, the division’s best defence is also pretty good at keeping out opponents’ restarts and McCormick has experienced plenty more arduous and involved openings in his previous 299 appearances.

It was not until after the halfway point of the first half that the Argyle custodian was called into meaningful action to mop up Darren Jones’ header from a free-kick which was one of several decisions given by referee Michael Salisbury in favour of Newport that defied reason.