Dobbie goal clinches it for Town.

A strong wind, blowing diagonally across the exposed pitch, made conditions difficult for both sides. With the elements in their favour, Newark made a positive start, Danny Purves launching a couple of early balls from the left, from the first of which George Pearce headed narrowly wide. It needed a clearing header from Joe Bland to deny Town a 9th minute lead as Chris Dobbie lofted the ball over keeper James Hallowes. Pearce went close again with a header as did James Munson who was inches off target following a fine ball in from George Paling. Phoenix’s first real threat came on 19 minutes through top scorer Steve McDonnell who twisted his way through the defence to bring a good save from Chris Riley. What proved to be the decisive goal came in the 26th minute, as Munson played a slide-rule ball through to Dobbie whose equally precise shot went across Hallowes and into the far corner. Phoenix almost struck back within minutes, as Luke Parsons lost his footing allowing McDonnell to lob Riley, fortunately for the Blues the ball went a foot wide. Pearce picked up a booking for an innocuous tackle, but Town were looking comfortable with a Sam Bagworth shot again needing a clearing header away from Bland.
Phoenix had to make a change of keeper at the break, with the struggling Hallowes being replaced by assistant manager Steve Spence who was forced into early action, having to use all of his considerable height to collect a Dobbie header after more good work from Purves. Riley had a nervous moment as a wind assisted ball from Carl Garlick just cleared the bar. Newark should have gone two up on 55 minutes as Dobbie weaved his way past two defenders, but with the keeper going down too early, he chose to square the ball rather than shoot and the chance went begging. Spence was then out again bravely at Dobbie’s feet as Newark continued to threaten. In contrast, the home side were having great problems in judging their balls forward, the majority of which ran away from the attack and down the slope towards Rotherham. Those that didn’t were well dealt with by Parsons and Arron Martin, who allowed the home forwards little time on the ball. Spence was again busy, grabbing the ball from Munson’s head as his defence stood appealing for offside. JC McDonald then combined well with Bagworth but the final ball was too high and sub Billy Hurst was just beaten to the ball by Garlick’s well-judged interception. The final action of the game saw Garlick given a red card, for an alleged comment to referee Carlile, whose over fussy handling of the game was to say the least, irritating.