English Football League Youth Alliance

Merit League 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Newport County U18 1 Northampton Town U18 4,  attendance 42

10’ 0-1

47’ 0-2

50’ 0-3

71’ 1-3

90’ + 2, 1-4

@ Dragon Park, Pitch 2

Velodrome Way

Newport

NP19 4RB

No Admission or Programme.

Taking in this noon kick off meant I would be able to visit three new grounds today, with a number of 3pm choices, before finishing up at Cardiff Hibernian, in the South Wales Alliance League at 6pm.

Dragon Park is owned by the F.A. Wales. The main stadium is floodlit and has a seated stand. Pitch 2 is actually about half a mile away and even has a different postcode ! (running parallel, beyond today’s pitch, is the 3G ground of Gwent County League club Lliswerry) It is a grass pitch, but is surrounded by the awful green mesh fencing that is used for 3G pitch cages. To make matters worse, there is no spectator access and they padlock the gate just to let everyone know where they stand regarding viewing options. I assumed the person on top of the gantry, that is between the dugouts, was filming the match, but perhaps he was using it as a watchtower to spot any intruders !

Northampton dominated throughout and looked a bigger and stronger team. The first half wasn’t great, but it was a much improved second half. Perhaps the fact that the padlock wasn’t put back on the gate after halftime helped, as I was able to gain an unrestricted view of the action, albeit from the corner of the pitch. Newport blew any chance of getting anything from the match when they had a penalty saved a few minutes after they had cut the deficit to 1-3.