A couple of meaty challenges got the game underway, with Sherwood getting in first before Dom Swingler clattered Proctor. The referee took the heat off by booking Danny Purves for a heavy tackle on Straw, and this settled the game down. George Paling tidied up well as Straw latched on to a long ball from the keeper, and while Town showed plenty of promise in their approach play, there was little sign of an end result. A slip by Homer gave Calum Fraser an opening, but the shot was too high, and Swingler put another effort into Kerry’s arms. Clear-cut chances were thin on the ground at both ends, the defensive pairing of Luke Parsons and Arron Martin keeping things tight at the back for Town. Mulligan wasted the best opportunity of the half for Sherwood as he headed wide from a good position. Fraser capped an energetic first half performance with a surging run down the right, but Sam Gregory’s first time shot was off target ensuring that a rather disappointing first half remained goalless.
At the start of the second period the game opened out, with Town beginning to stretch the visitors’ back four for the first time. Jamie Brooks put Fraser away on the left, but his low, diagonal ball into the area found no takers. Chris Riley then did well to clear the ball under severe pressure from Straw, after Williams and Mulligan had unlocked Town down the left. The deadlock was finally broken on 52 minutes, as Purves played a perfectly weighted diagonal ball from the halfway line which dropped over the covering defender to fall for Porter, who put his shot across Kerry and into the far corner. Tom Mallinson and Sam Bagworth replaced Brookes and Gregory, Bagworth almost finding instant success as he shot across the goal after Porter had skilfully set him up. As Newark became more dominant, Swingler narrowly missed a Fraser cross, Purves again launched another aerial bombardment on the Sherwood goal which Bagworth put over the bar, and Fraser went close with a near post header. Paling pulled off another good defensive header to snuff out a rare attack from the visitors before Town finally got the second goal their pressure deserved on 84 minutes. Fraser found Bagworth whose low cross evaded the back four, allowing Swingler to fire into the roof of the net. Town’s third came in the 87th minute courtesy of visitors’ keeper Kerry. There was no danger as he caught a long ball forward, but as he jumped he stuck a foot out at Wilford, an offenced which was spotted by the keen-eyed referee, who brought out a yellow card and pointed to the penaty spot. Fraser stepped up to score the goal his non-stop running thoroughly deserved.
Tony Joynes was happy with the result. “It was good to start with three points and a clean sheet. The defence was well marshalled and Chris Riley wasn’t overworked. The subs in the second half gave us more width, and all three strikers got on the scoresheet”.