Coventry City 0-1 Newport County
City: O'Brien. Grimmer, Willis (Biamou 78), McDonald, Stokes, Doyle, Kelly, (Stevenson 60),Jones, McNulty, Beavon (Andreu 60), Vincenti. Subs: Burge, Hyam, Pearson, Nazon.
Newport: Day, Pipe, O'Brien, White, Demetriou, Willmott, Cole (Bennett 69), Dolan, Labadie, Nouble, Quigley (Reynolds 69). Subs: Bitter. Butler, Roger, McCoulsky, Jahraldo.
Goals Reece Cole 53
Referee P. Tierney
Att 8,745
A howler from Liam O'Brien sent Coventry City down to a 1-0 defeat against Newport.
Mark Robins named an unchanged side for the first visit of Newport County to Coventry since the 1960's and once which saw City going in top of the league, for a game against a side which included three former City players.
City attacked the North Stand for the first half with The Exiles, who reformed and fought their way back into the Football League, rather than opting for a life of League Of Wales football, attacking the end where their six hundred or so fans fans were.
Mark O'Brien had the first shot of the game in the fourth minute with a right footed volley which went well past Liam O'Brien's goal.
Jack Grimmer again did well and got in a low fifteenth minute cross which Day did well to deal with on a pitch which had been watered.
City's first corner of the game came in the 17th minute but came to nothing as did a free kick.
In the 25th minute, Reece Cole got down the right right and struck O'Brien's left hand post in a stop start half of football.
Jack Grimmer won a 42nd minute corner which Vincenti headed over for a City side who were giving the ball away far too often.
Day did well in the final minute as Beavon came in to get in a shot which was blocked for a corner. That was cleared away and Newport won a corner but O'Brien grabbed and it was 0-0 at the break
Newport had their next corner four minutes into the second half which resulted in Robbie Willmott firing over.
In the 53rd minute. Newport broke. Reece Cole got through and hit a timid shot. However, Liam O'Brien allowed it to squirm under his body and over the line and into the net to groans from the City support at conceding the first goal of the season and delight from the sheep loving away support.
A City corner never even got past the man and whilst a smokebomb went off in the away end, City win won a 58th minute free kick which again never got past the first man.
Tony Andreu and Ben Stevenson came on for the final half an hour just before Marc McNulty raced through and blasted high and wide to more groans.
Day made a cracking save from an Andreu volley on the turn at the start of a spell of pressure from the Sky Blues who were gifted a 68th minute corner with one massive slice.
Newport also made a double change for the last twenty minutes and nearly gave City a goal with a 75th minute back header which Day just managed to grab.
Jordan Willis was replaced by Biamou but in the 78th minute, the Newport fans thought they had a second when Lemar Reynolds got into the area and hit a shot which thankfully went into the side netting.
Newport wasted a corner but were soon back on the attack through Reynolds.
Vincenti and Andreu had shots with the second having to be pushed over for a corner by Day.
McNulty sliced wise as the stadium floodlights came on. A Vincenti header in the 89th minute was hacked away as the City support tried to lift the team.
It was one of those days and City were beaten.