2012–13 Newport County A.F.C. season

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Newport County
2012–13 season
Chairman Chris Blight
(until 19 July 2012)
Les Scadding
(from 23 August 2012)
Manager Justin Edinburgh
Stadium Rodney Parade
Conference National 3rd (promoted via play-offs)
FA Cup 4th qualifying round
FA Trophy 1st round
Top goalscorer League: O'Connor (19)
All: O'Connor (21)
Highest home attendance 6,615 vs Grimsby Town (28 April 2013)
Lowest home attendance 1,479 vs Gateshead (1 December 2012)
Average home league attendance 2,547
Home colours
Away colours
← 2011–12 2013–14 →

The 2012–13 season was Newport County's third consecutive season in the Conference National and 92nd season of league football overall. The season marked the return of association football to Rodney Parade for the first time in 72 years.[1] The club celebrated its centenary in the 2012–13 season by winning promotion to Football League Two after a 25-year absence.[2][3]

Season review

Introduction

File:West Stand, Rodney Parade, Newport.jpg
Rodney Parade

In May 2012, Newport County announced that they had agreed a deal to move to the city's rugby stadium, Rodney Parade.[4] In August 2012 EuroMillions lottery winner Les Scadding succeeded Chris Blight as club Chairman.[5] In February 2013 a further 10-year lease to play at Rodney Parade was signed.[6]

The centenary 2012–13 season saw Newport County finish third in the Conference Premier league, reaching the play-offs for the first time. A 2–0 aggregate win over Grimsby Town in the two-legged play-off semi-final saw Newport County reach the 2013 Conference Premier play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. The final versus Wrexham was the first Wembley final to feature two Welsh teams, and Newport County won 2–0 to return to the Football League after a 25-year absence with promotion to League Two.[7] County were awarded Freedom of the City of Newport on 17 August 2013 in recognition of this achievement.[8]

League

2012

The season started away to promotion hopefuls Mansfield Town. County were 2–0 up within 13 minutes, but found themselves level at 2–2 five minutes into the second half. Eventually winning 4–3 County were 3rd in the table.[9] After a 4–0 home win to Nuneaton Town[10] County were top of the table and stayed there during a run of five consecutive wins culminating in a 2–0 home victory to local rivals Hereford United[11] — their first visit to Newport since the Welsh Cup clash in 1989. County were now the only team in the division with a 100% record.[12] However, following defeats to 10th-placed Wrexham[13] and 12th-placed Dartford[14] County were back in 3rd place, but the next three games were won and County were back to the top. Following a 0–0 draw with Grimsby Town County were temporarily down to 2nd,[15] but were back at the top after the next six games. Following a shock home defeat to second-bottom Hyde[16] County were down to 2nd on goal difference, but back on top the following game after a 3–1 home win against Gateshead.[17] Despite leading Kidderminster Harriers 2–1 in the next game County lost 3–2 and they were back to 3rd.[18] The home match with Luton Town was won 5–2, taking County back to the top of the table. The last game of 2012 was won away at Forest Green Rovers, but with Grimsby Town having played an extra game County finished the year in 2nd place.[19]

2013

The first fixture of the new year was the home visit of Forest Green Rovers. County were decisively beaten 5–0 and dropped to 3rd in the table as a result.[20] The next match at home to Wrexham ended in a 1–1 draw, which was enough to put Wrexham top of the table, with County staying 3rd, one point behind.[21] County rose to 2nd in the table following the 4–2 away win at Lincoln City, with débutant Robbie Willmott scoring a brace.[22] With momentum in their favour County were desperate to get the home match with bottom-placed Barrow on, but the Rodney Parade pitch was under several feet of snow on the morning of 19 January. Over 120 fans helped to clear the pitch but County went on to lose 2–0.[23] Following that setback, Newport then went on a seven-match unbeaten run, including completing the double over Mansfield Town[24] and Hereford United in the process. The Hereford match being particularly notable for the award of three penalties to Hereford, two of which were scored.[25] In the following match a 90th-minute winner for Kidderminster Harriers resulted in them being the only team to complete double victories over County and move into top place in the table as a result.[26] The next game resulted in a second consecutive County defeat away at Stockport County — Stockport winning 1–0 as a result of a Lee Minshull own goal.[27] County now faced the prospect of the remaining 10 matches in just 26 days. However they went on another unbeaten run, winning at Southport three days later,[28] followed by a 0–0 away draw with Gateshead two days after that. The Gateshead match was played at Boston United's York Street ground with the match having been postponed on four previous occasions.[29] A further 0–0 draw was played out with Dartford just two days later.[30] Newport got back to winning ways with their second victory over Nuneaton Town two days after that.[31] Following a 0–0 away draw with Cambridge United[32] a place in the play-offs was secured with a 1–0 home victory over Braintree Town which also represented the seventh double of the season.[33] Newport finished their home season with victories over Macclesfield Town[34] and Alfreton Town, the latter of which was played in torrential rain with large pools of standing water.[35] The penultimate game of the season was a 2–2 away draw with Luton Town[36] with the final game against fellow play-off contenders Grimsby Town. County manager Justin Edinburgh fielded a much-changed side, resting many first-team players ahead of the play-off matches. As a result, County lost 3–0 and set up a semi-final first leg back at Blundell Park four days later.[37]

Play-offs

The County team that lined up against Grimsby in the semi-final first leg contained seven changes from the team that had played in the last league game. Grimsby, who boasted the best defensive record in the division, made only three changes. In a vastly different affair to the league game, County triumphed 1–0 as a result of a Ismail Yakubu header in the 89th minute.[38]

As the second of the two semi-final second legs played County already knew that their potential opponents in the final would be Wrexham who had beaten Kidderminster Harriers 5–2 on aggregate. Taking the 1–0 lead into the home game County would only need a draw to make it to Wembley. However, in front of a Rodney Parade record crowd Christian Jolley scored the only goal of the game to make it 2–0 on aggregate and book County's place in the final.[39]

In order to win the final and promotion County needed to beat Wrexham, something which they had failed to do on each of their previous six Conference meetings. The game was billed as a battle between the league's best midfield against the most potent strike force. [3] Wrexham's midfielders had shut out the County attack for 86 minutes, until Wrexham's David Artell got his head to a ball over the top but couldn't deal with it completely and Christian Jolley latched on to it and lifted the ball over Chris Maxwell to give County the late advantage.

As Wrexham pushed for a leveller they were caught on the counter-attack in injury time and their fate was sealed. Aaron O'Connor hammered the ball into the roof of the net, at the second attempt, after his initial effort was saved by Maxwell, to prompt wild celebrations from the County players, management and fans.[40]

Newport County win the Conference National play-off winners' trophy at Wembley

Results summary

Overall Home Away
Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts W D L GF GA GD W D L GF GA GD
46 25 10 11 85 60  +25 85 13 5 5 43 27  +16 12 5 6 42 33  +9

Last updated: 20 April 2013.
Source: [1]

Results by round

Round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46
Ground A H H A H A A H A H A H A H A H H A H H A H A H H A H H H A H A A A H A A A H A A H H H A A
Result W W W W W L L D W W W D W W D L W L L W L W W L D W L D W W W W W D L L W D D W D W W W D L
Position 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 2 3 3 2 2 5 4 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 3 3 3

Last updated: 20 April 2013.
Source: [2]
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Cup

FA Cup

County were drawn away to Yate Town of the Southern League Division One South & West. When the match was played County were the highest-placed club left in the competition and Yate the lowest. Despite taking the lead as early as the 6th minute, County found themselves 3–1 down by the 69th. With two minutes of time remaining Aaron O'Connor scored County's second and Tony James the equaliser in the 4th minute of injury time to force a replay at Rodney Parade.[41]

The replay began in a similar fashion with O'Connor opening the scoring in the 43rd minute for County to lead 1–0 at half time. On 65 minutes David Pipe was sent off for a second yellow card and minutes later the visitors were awarded and scored a soft penalty. This tied the score at 1–1 and extra time was needed. With two late goals Yate progressed into the First Round proper.[42]

FA Trophy

There was no repeat of the previous season's Wembley final for County as they lost their First Round FA Trophy match 0–2 away to Conference South Welling United. Welling themselves went on to become champions of Conference South.[43]

Squad statistics

(Substitute appearances in brackets)
No. Pos. Name League Cup Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
21 DF Wales Byron Anthony 19 (2) 3 1 (0) 0 20 (2) 3
28 DF England Michael Boateng 3 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 3 (0) 0
11 FW England Ryan Charles 2 (8) 1 0 (2) 0 2 (10) 1
9 FW England Danny Crow 20 (5) 3 0 (0) 0 20 (5) 3
26 MF England Scott Donnelly 16 (2) 1 0 (0) 0 16 (2) 1
16 MF England Lee Evans 18 (4) 3 2 (0) 0 20 (4) 3
34 FW England Will Evans 3 (3) 0 0 (0) 0 3 (3) 0
17 MF Wales Michael Flynn 28 (10) 2 1 (0) 0 29 (10) 2
30 MF England Alex Gilbey 4 (1) 0 0 (0) 0 4 (1) 0
27 FW Wales Rhys Griffiths 4 (6) 0 0 (0) 0 4 (6) 0
15 FW England Jake Harris 0 (5) 0 0 (2) 0 0 (7) 0
3 DF Wales Andrew Hughes 18 (8) 0 0 (1) 0 18 (9) 0
5 DF Wales Tony James 41 (0) 2 3 (0) 1 44 (0) 3
23 FW England Christian Jolley 22 (2) 14 1 (0) 0 20 (2) 14
1 GK Northern Ireland Alan Julian 10 (1) 0 1 (0) 0 11 (1) 0
10 FW Dominica Jefferson Louis 11 (6) 2 2 (0) 1 13 (6) 3
8 MF England Lee Minshull 28 (7) 6 3 (0) 0 31 (7) 6
7 FW England Aaron O'Connor 36 (3) 18 3 (0) 2 39 (3) 20
22 GK Wales Joe Perry 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
40 GK England Lenny Pidgeley 36 (0) 0 2 (0) 0 38 (0) 0
2 DF Wales David Pipe 41 (0) 0 1 (0) 0 42 (0) 0
4 MF England Max Porter 26 (0) 1 3 (0) 0 29 (0) 1
13 DF England Andy Sandell 42 (0) 9 3 (0) 0 45 (0) 9
20 FW England Michael Smith 9 (0) 4 1 (0) 0 10 (0) 4
12 MF Wales Ben Swallow 7 (13) 2 3 (0) 0 10 (13) 2
14 MF Trinidad and Tobago Jake Thomson 12 (10) 0 2 (0) 0 14 (10) 0
25 FW Northern Ireland Conor Washington 5 (9) 1 0 (0) 0 5 (9) 1
24 FW England Robbie Willmott 10 (9) 6 0 (0) 0 10 (9) 6
6 DF England Ismail Yakubu 35 (1) 5 1 (0) 0 36 (1) 5

Transfers

In

Date Pos. Name From Fee
3 June 2012 GK Northern Ireland Alan Julian Stevenage Free
11 June 2012 MF Trinidad and Tobago Jake Thomson Forest Green Rovers Free
11 June 2012 FW Dominica Jefferson Louis Lincoln City Free
13 June 2012 DF Wales Tony James Burton Albion Free
19 June 2012 FW England Danny Crow Luton Town Free
25 July 2012 FW England Aaron O'Connor Luton Town Free
26 July 2012 MF Wales Michael Flynn Bradford City Free
30 July 2012 GK England Lenny Pidgeley Exeter City Free
1 September 2012 FW Northern Ireland Conor Washington St Neots Town Undisclosed
15 November 2012 DF Wales Byron Anthony Hereford United Free
10 January 2013 FW England Robbie Willmott Cambridge United Undisclosed
11 January 2013 FW England Christian Jolley AFC Wimbledon Undisclosed
31 January 2013 MF England Scott Donnelly Farnborough Undisclosed
14 February 2013 FW Wales Rhys Griffiths Unattached Free
19 March 2013 DF England Michael Boateng Sutton United Free

Out

Date Pos. Name To Fee
15 May 2012 GK England Glyn Thompson Released
15 May 2012 DF England Lee Baker Released
15 May 2012 FW England Elliott Buchanan Released
16 May 2012 MF England Darryl Knights Released
16 May 2012 MF Wales Troy Greening Released
16 May 2012 MF France Guillaume Velez Released
16 May 2012 DF England Paul Rodgers Released
29 May 2012 FW England Sam Foley Yeovil Town None
3 June 2012 DF England Gary Warren Inverness Caledonian Thistle None
27 June 2012 FW Scotland Craig McAllister Eastleigh None
31 Oct 2012 MF Wales Kris Fielden Released
31 Oct 2012 DF England Mark Cooper Released
31 January 2013 MF Wales Lee Evans Wolverhampton Wanderers Undisclosed
31 January 2013 FW Dominica Jefferson Louis Whitehawk None
5 February 2013 FW England Ryan Charles Released
1 May 2013 DF England Michael Boateng Released
1 May 2013 FW England Jake Harris Released
1 May 2013 GK Wales Joe Perry Released
10 May 2013 MF Trinidad and Tobago Jake Thomson Released
10 May 2013 GK Northern Ireland Alan Julian Released
10 May 2013 MF England Scott Donnelly Released
10 May 2013 MF Wales Ben Swallow Released

Loans in

Date Pos. Name From Expiry
5 November 2012 FW England Michael Smith Charlton Athletic 4 January 2013
15 November 2012 FW England Christian Jolley AFC Wimbledon 12 January 2013
31 January 2013 FW England Will Evans Hereford United 1 May 2013
27 March 2013 MF England Alex Gilbey Colchester United 6 May 2013

Loans out

Date Pos. Name To Expiry
5 October 2012 DF England Mark Cooper Frome Town 5 November 2012
22 November 2012 FW Dominica Jefferson Louis Whitehawk 1 January 2013
2 January 2013 MF Trinidad and Tobago Jake Thomson Lincoln City 31 January 2013

Fixtures and results

Pre-season friendlies

Date Opponents Venue Result Scorers Attendance Notes
Fri 6 Jul 2012 Undy Athletic Playing Fields 1–3 Hughes
Fri 13 Jul 2012 Moreton Rangers London Road 1–1 J. Jones
Sat 14 Jul 2012 Evesham United Jubilee Stadium 3–0 Harris, Sandell, Louis Carl Lewis Memorial Trophy
Sat 21 Jul 2012 Carmarthen Town Richmond Park 1–3 Harris
Tue 24 Jul 2012 Bristol Rovers Rodney Parade 2–0 Louis, Fielden 1,549
Fri 27 Jul 2012 Merthyr Town Rodney Parade 2–2 Louis, Harris 701
Tue 31 Jul 2012 Swansea City Rodney Parade 2–2 O'Connor, Louis 891
Fri 3 Aug 2012 Yeovil Town Rodney Parade 1–3 Sandell 729

Conference National

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Main article: 2012–13 Football Conference § Conference National

Play-offs

Final

5 May 2013
15:00 BST
Wrexham 0–2 Newport County
Report
Report
Report
Report
Report
Report
Report
Report		 Jolley Goal 86'
O'Connor Goal 90+4'
Wembley Stadium, London
Attendance: 16,346
Referee: Michael Bull
Wrexham
Newport County
GK 24 Wales Chris Maxwell
RB 2 England Stephen Wright
CB 32 England David Artell
CB 6 England Martin Riley
LB 3 England Neil Ashton
RM 8 England Jay Harris Substituted off 89'
CM 12 England Dean Keates (C) Substituted off 80'
CM 14 England Joe Clarke
LM 16 England Johnny Hunt
CF 10 England Brett Ormerod Booked 64'
CF 11 England Andy Morrell Substituted off 69'
Substitutes:
GK 13 England Andy Coughlin
DF 23 England Chris Westwood
MF 17 England Glen Little Substituted in 80'
FW 7 Poland Adrian Cieslewicz Substituted in 69'
FW 31 Nigeria Dele Adebola Substituted in 89'
Manager:
England Andy Morrell
GK 40 England Lenny Pidgeley
CB 5 Wales Tony James
CB 6 England Ismail Yakubu
CB 21 Wales Byron Anthony
RM 2 Wales David Pipe (C)
CM 8 England Lee Minshull
CM 30 England Alex Gilbey Booked 79'
CM 17 Wales Michael Flynn Substituted off 74'
LM 13 England Andy Sandell
CF 23 England Christian Jolley
CF 9 England Danny Crow Substituted off 63'
Substitutes:
GK 1 Northern Ireland Alan Julian
DF 3 Wales Andrew Hughes
MF 26 England Scott Donnelly Substituted in 74'
FW 7 England Aaron O'Connor Substituted in 63'
FW 24 England Robbie Willmott
Manager:
England Justin Edinburgh

MATCH RULES

  • 90 minutes.
  • 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary.
  • Penalty shootout if scores still level.
  • Five named subsititutes
  • Maximum of 3 substitutions.

FA Cup

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Main article: 2012–13 FA Cup

FA Trophy

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Main article: 2012–13 FA Trophy

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L F A GD Pts Notes
1 Mansfield Town 46 30 5 11 92 52 +40 95 Champions, promoted
2 Kidderminster Harriers 46 28 9 9 82 40 +42 93 Play-offs
3 Newport County 46 25 10 11 85 60 +25 85 Play-off winners, promoted
4 Grimsby Town 46 23 14 9 70 38 +32 83 Play-offs
5 Wrexham 46 22 14 10 74 45 +29 80 Play-offs
6 Hereford United 46 19 13 14 73 63 +10 70
7 Luton Town 46 18 13 15 70 62 +8 67
8 Dartford 46 19 9 18 67 63 +4 66
9 Braintree Town 46 19 9 18 63 72 −9 66
10 Forest Green Rovers 46 18 11 17 63 49 +14 65
11 Macclesfield Town 46 17 12 17 65 70 −5 63
12 Woking 46 18 8 20 73 81 −8 62
13 Alfreton Town 46 16 12 18 69 74 −5 60
14 Cambridge United 46 15 14 17 68 69 −1 59
15 Nuneaton Town 46 14 15 17 55 63 −8 57
16 Lincoln City 46 15 11 20 66 73 −7 56
17 Gateshead 46 13 16 17 58 61 −3 55
18 Hyde 46 16 7 23 63 75 −12 55
19 Tamworth 46 15 10 21 55 69 −14 55
20 Southport 46 14 12 20 72 86 −14 54
21 Stockport County 46 13 11 22 57 80 −23 50 Relegated
22 Barrow 46 11 13 22 45 83 −38 46 Relegated
23 Ebbsfleet United 46 8 15 23 55 89 −34 39 Relegated
24 Telford United 46 6 17 23 52 79 −27 35 Relegated
Key
Division Champions
Promoted
Into play-offs
Relegated

External links

References

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