Newport Stadium Saturday, September 25th, 2004   Conference South Attendance: 797         Newport County 2-2 Hornchurch
2004 /05

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Nationwide South 25th September 2004 Newport County 2 - 2 Hornchurch Bowen 37', Wilson-Denis 51' H/T 1 - 1 Att: 797 Purser 45+, McCarthy 57' Match Highlights Newport County Hornchurch Bowen - GOAL 37 45+ GOAL - Purser Wilson-Denis - GOAL 51 57 GOAL - McCarthy 75 OFF - Wormull ON - Elam Davies - BOOKED 82 89 OFF - Clark ON - Shipp A feisty Newport side ended our winning streak but although the result wasn't ideal for us it was a great game to watch. We came at Newport very strongly for the first 20 minutes or so and their defence did well to keep us out, although on one or two occasions they were perhaps fortunate that our finishing was not as it has been in our last few games. Barely a minute into the game and keeper Roger Freestone had an easy task of saving Darren Caskey's 20 yard free kick, but had more work to do 2 minutes later when he did well to stop a Paul McCarthy effort after he surged into the area. Steve Clark got behind the defence in the 6th minute and slipped the ball past Freestone only for the ball to bobble wide and 4 minutes later a Kirk Jackson header came back off the bar and, with Freestone toppling backwards, Wayne Purser uncharacteristically blasted over from just inside the 6 yard area. Newport though began to put some good moves together and took the lead from one of them in the 37th minute. Nathan Davies made a mazy run through midfield and sent a diagonal ball to Jason Bowen unmarked who rasped a shot past Bayes and into the far corner. Try as we might we struggled to regain our former dominance, but four minutes into first half stoppage time, just as we were beginning to think that today would not be our day, a Newport defender failed to clear a Simon Wormull cross into the area and Purser ran onto the ball to lift it over the advancing Freestone for our equaliser. They say it's the best time to score but it didn't seem to worry the home side as they continued to press in the second half. Scott Gooding cleared a header from Darren Jones off the line in the 59th minute, but Newport took the lead for the second time 2 minutes later, Carl Wilson-Denis shooting past Bayes after a surging attack. Another chance fell to Wilson-Denis three minutes later from a similar position but this time Bayes made a great stop. We equalised again in the 57th minute after a short spell of pressure when Paul McCarthy headed home from a Damon Searle corner, but still the home side wouldn't lie down. Bayes was called into action again on 65 minutes tipping over a header from defender Kevin Aherne-Evans who also came close 10 minutes later with a shot which went narrowly over. Simon Weatherstone, who has come so close to scoring many times in his appearances for us so far, hit the crossbar with a long range effort with ten minutes to go but there was one unsavoury incident a few minutes later when an incident on the half-way line led to a 22-man scuffle which, amazingly, led to only one yellow card. However, this didn't detract from what was an exciting game which could so easily have gone either way. Teams Newport County Roger Freestone Lee Phillips Kevin Aherne-Evans Andrew Thomas Darren Jones Nathan Davies Jonathan Coates Ashley Williams Gethyn Jones Carl Wilson-Denis Jason Bowen SUBS John Phillips Sam O'Sullivan Tom Hooper Dale Evans Kieron Blackburn Hornchurch Ashley Bayes Scott Gooding Damon Searle Jamie Stuart Paul McCarthy Simon Weatherstone Simon Wormull Darren Caskey Kirk Jackson Wayne Purser Steve Clark SUBS Lee Matthews Adie Harris Danny Shipp Lee Elam James Pullen (GK) Bertie Brayley Weather Conditions: Overcast