Good Friday turns into a nightmare for Cobblers as they suffer more injury woe in defeat to Newport County

Cobblers’ eight-game unbeaten run was brought to an emphatic end by Newport County on a thoroughly miserable afternoon at Rodney Parade on Friday.

Town were well-beaten in south Wales, eventually going down 3-0 after two late goals, but what might prove even more damaging to their automatic promotion hopes is yet more injury problems.

With their squad already decimated by absentees, Aaron McGowan and Jack Sowerby both came off before the start of the second-half against Newport before Akin Odimayo was replaced in stoppage-time after a recurrence of his hamstring issue. Ryan Haynes also appeared to be struggling towards the end.

As for the game itself, Town edged the first-half but their failure to convert several half chances was punished when Omar Bogle struck with Newport’s first chance of the game shortly before half-time.

Cobblers huffed and puffed without much cutting edge in the second period, and their rotten afternoon was compounded in stoppage-time when Bogle’s penalty and Charlie McNeil’s excellent finish piled on the pain.

Northampton remain second in League Two but wins for Carlisle, Stockport and Mansfield bunch up the table in the race for promotion, and manager Jon Brady must somehow pick up his players for the visit of Gillingham on Easter Monday.

Danny Hylton made a long-awaited return to the squad after three months out as Brady stuck with the same team that drew against Stevenage last weekend.

A slick move by the Cobblers on seven minutes nearly led to an opening goal as Sam Hoskins and Louis Appéré combined smartly to tee up Mitch Pinnock, whose first-time shot from the edge of the box flew narrowly wide via a deflection.

Harvey Lintott put too much on his header when attacking a Pinnock corner eight yards out before Appéré almost scored a fine solo goal, beating two defenders down the left before cutting inside and shooting into the side-netting.

Town were playing well but their momentum was checked on the half-hour mark when they encountered by an all-too familiar problem as McGowan limped off in a lot of pain, replaced by Akin Odimayo, after hurting his ankle in a challenge with Bogle.

Aaron Wildig and Pinnock then exchanged long-range shots, both held by the respective goalkeepers, but just as the opening 45 minutes looked destined to end in stalemate, Newport struck with pretty much their first chance of the game. Cobblers could only half clear a free-kick and after an effort was blocked on the line, the ball dropped kindly at the feet of Bogle and he made no mistake.

Brady’s mood would not have been improved at half-time when he had to withdraw another player, this time Sowerby. The midfielder had initially carried on after damaging his ankle in a heavy challenge on halfway during the first-half.

Will Hondermarck was the man to replace him and his first contribution was to make an important block as Nathan Moriah-Welsh took aim from the edge of the penalty box.

Cobblers were agonisingly close to equalising through Hoskins’ shot on the hour, his instinctive first-time shot from Kieron Bowie’s left-wing cross rolling a fraction wide of the far post.

But the second-half was fractious and scrappy and that did not suit Northampton in their pursuit of an equaliser. Both Hylton and D’Margio Wright-Phillips were introduced but the visitors could only muster long-range efforts, two of which were sent wide by Marc Leonard.

Bad turned to worse late on when Odimayo became the third player to be subbed off with injury, and then Bogle made the points safe with a penalty after Lintott’s foul. To make matters worse, there was still enough time for McNeil to slot in a third.

Newport: Day, Clarke (Drysdale 11), Demetriou ©, Baker, Norman, Evans, Lewis (Bennett 76), Moriah-Welsh (Waite 63), Wildig, Bogle, Kavanagh (McNeil 76)

Subs not used: Townsend, Bowen, Rai

Cobblers: Burge, Lintott, McGowan (Odimayo 29) (Yengi 90), Guthrie ©, Haynes, Sowerby (Hondermarck 45), Leonard, Pinnock, Hoskins, Bowie (Wright-Phillips 72), Appéré (Hylton 72)

Subs not used: King, Osew

Referee: Leigh Doughty

Attendance: 4,982

Cobblers fans: 666