Newport County Aims to End Home Scoring Drought

Newport County has not experienced a streak of three consecutive home league matches without scoring a goal in 44 years. The challenge for Nelson Jardim’s team, as they prepare to host Grimsby Town this weekend, is to ensure this statistic remains intact by Saturday evening. The Exiles are seeking their first victory in front of their home supporters since a 3-1 win against Salford on 1 October. Since that date, they have played two home league fixtures, which resulted in a 3-0 defeat to Chesterfield and a goalless draw with Fleetwood. Although Newport did manage to score in an FA Cup loss to Peterborough at Rodney Parade earlier this month, their upcoming match against Grimsby will see them striving to prevent replicating the club’s previous sequence of three home league games without a goal, which occurred in October 1980. Len Ashurst was the manager when the Ironsiders, as they were then known, went three Third Division matches without scoring at Somerton Park. They suffered a 1-0 loss to Oxford, followed by a 2-0 defeat against Plymouth, and then concluded with a 0-0 draw against Reading. Similar to the current situation with Jardim’s squad, there were goals scored in knockout competitions during that barren league run, with Newport netting four goals against the Irish side Crusaders during their progression to the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Newport ultimately finished 12th that season, which marked their initial campaign at the third-tier level since 1962, following their promotion in the preceding campaign. Sandi Toksvig will be accompanied by Gyles Brandreth, Lulu, Emmanuel Sonubi, and Alan Davies. Participants will have the chance to sing along to songs by artists such as Queen, Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, and Katy Perry, among others. Ben Fogle and Kate Humble are set to return for the celebratory events scheduled at Longleat Safari Park. Discussions will encompass subjects ranging from microplastics found in our air, soil, and waterways, to the scale of food waste observed during this period of the year. © 2024 BBC. The British Broadcasting Corporation does not assume responsibility for the content of external websites. Further information regarding their policy on external linking is available.