Team: Lovett, Turnbull, Peters, Kuodys, Grundy, Fewtrell, Cousins, Shipman, San Emeterio, Fisher, De Baros

Subs: Kingston (San Emeterio - 60), Francis (Cousins - 60)

Goalscorers: De Baros 

Hartley Wintney travelling a total of 150 miles on a Saturday for a league game must surely be a record. This doesn't excuse the woeful 1st half showing from the Hartley team. We were at sixes & sevens for the majority of the opening 45 minutes, chasing shadows with Newport Pagnell passing & dictating the play with ease. If it wasn't for poor finishing, last gasp blocks & a couple of smart saves the game would have been over as a contest within the first 20 minutes.

To little surprise, Newport took the lead midway through the 1st half. An unchallenged midfielder picked his pass into the right channel with the striker running onto the through ball & thumping home across the face of the goal into the far top corner from all of 18 yards. It was a great strike but no more than Newport deserved & for a few moments at least sparked Hartley into action.

Pedro de Baros with a couple of positive runs, managed to jink his way through to force a smart save from the previously untested home goal keeper. With possibly the only move of the half that included more than two completed passes Luke Fewtrell was set free on the right wing to whip in a cross that was headed with power but just wide of the target by Ramon San Emeterio.

The promising glimpses were nothing more than glimpses & Newport were soon again in control & it was with some relief when the ref blew up for half time.

The key characteristics that we normally associate with the reserve side had seriously been lacking & in no uncertain terms the players were reminded of this during the half time interval.

As we had hoped there was a clear improvement in the intensity of the 2nd half performance, although in all honesty the quality was still not to our usual standards the commitment & willingness to compete was closer to what we all would expect.

Almost immediately the tempo of the game had changed & Newport were finally forced to exit their comfort zone & were enganged in a game of football.

Chances were had & the Newport goalie was forced to make a couple of good saves. Just as we were looking like possibly getting back into the game Newport doubled their lead. On the hour a cross from the right somehow managed to bobble past a group of attacking & defending players & somewhat fortunately fell to the feet of the Newport forward on the penalty spot to slot home.

At 2-0 the introduction of Rieo Francis certainly livened things up on the left side of midfield & following some neat work on the left Pedro de Baros received the ball with his back to goal in the penalty area, he smartly turned & smashed home to make the score 2-1.

Although still not at our best we were back in the game & in the last moments only the post stopped Hartley from coming away with an unlikely share of the spoils. A through ball was met by Phillip Fisher some 35 yards from goal, he outpaced one defender, took it past another & from the edge of the area squeezed the ball past the onrushing goalie only to see the ball agonisingly hit the inside of the post & trickle along the goal line, only to then be cleared by the covering defender to safety.

The 2nd half performance clearly demonstrates that if you are having an off day but you still compete & work hard you can grind out a result. The 1st half showed that if you just turn up & let the other team dictate the play you will get beaten. The Suburban league is too strong to be able to just turn up & expect to win a game even though the team your playing may be below you in the league table.

Next week we're in the cup & a much improved performance is required as a win will see us through to the quarter finals with the possiblilty of being drawn against one of the big boys such as Woking or AFC Wimbledon.