James Rowberry hails Newport’s fighting spirit

Posted Sunday, December 12, 2021 by PA

Newport manager James Rowberry praised his team’s fighting spirit as they came from behind for the second time in a week to claim a 2-1 victory over Port Vale at Rodney Parade.

Rowberry’s men fought back from 2-0 down to beat 10-man Sutton on Tuesday and they recovered from a 1-0 deficit to beat injury-hit Vale, who had Dan Jones sent off late on.

Dom Telford returned to the starting XI after recovering from Covid and he scored in his eighth successive league match to cancel out Ben Garrity’s first-half opener in the 69th minute before Finn Azaz scored a stunning volleyed winner six minutes later.

“I’m over the moon, I thought the whole team was excellent,” said Rowberry.

“It’s credit to us because teams are coming here now and trying to stop us play our style and we’ve gone behind again and come back again.

“They had a few players injured but we still had to go and beat the team in front of us.

“Back-to-back wins in this division are tough and I can’t explain how ecstatic I am for the lads and the staff.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” he added. “I loved it. I maybe showed a bit too much emotion but it was brilliant.”

Telford, the League Two player of the month for November, has 15 goals already this season and Rowberry is expecting interest in the striker in January.

“Possibly,” he said. “But that’s football, that’s life. I’d rather people be interested in our players because it shows we’re doing something right.”

The three points lifted Newport to fourth in the table, just a point behind Vale in third as the halfway point of the season approaches, but Rowberry is not allowing himself to get carried away.

“I’m not thinking about positions in the league,” said the Exiles boss. “I’m just thinking about the next game, which is Rochdale away.”

Vale manager Darrell Clarke admitted his side were second best but he was reluctant to criticise his depleted squad, with Jamie Proctor, James Wilson, George Lloyd, David Amoo, Dave Worrall and Devante Rodney all unavailable.

“It was a very tough afternoon,” said Clarke. “We were nowhere near the standards we’ve set, really. We always seemed to be hanging on. We lacked a bit of juice in the legs and we lacked control in transition.

“There was a lot that was wrong with the performance but I don’t want to be too critical of the boys because they’re putting their bodies on the line in challenging times.

“Me and my staff are working very hard to try to get results in the situation that we’re in. It is tough but we have to be a lot better.”