Is Lady Luck still furloughed? | Newport County 2-1 Mansfield Town

Sky Bet League Two, Game 4 – Saturday 3rd October 2020, Rodney Parade [Behind Closed Doors]​

2020 has been a horrendous year in general, but yesterday the world of football hit a new low as it would appear that not only are fans still forced to watch from home – but good old lady luck remains furloughed, at least from the Stags’ perspective as yet again a 1-0 lead is overturned and defeat is the final outcome.

The Stags needed to make changes to freshen things up and take the game to inform Newport and made five – one enforced as keeper Stech missed training through illness, leading to another round of covid-testing for the entire squad.

Shock horror they all came back negative, including the Stags’ number one who stayed home to recover – giving Aidan Stone the chance to shine, something in my opinion which he did, if he is dropped for next Saturday’s league match with Stevenage that will be very harsh indeed.

Mansfield played OK to keep Newport at bay and I genuinely felt at half-time that if we could up our game a gear, we’d win. We did and lead through a rocket from Stephen McLaughlin, one of the other changes and all we needed was that little bit of luck to protect the clean sheet and the points.

Sadly, Lady Luck is enjoying her days watching Netflix too much as she seemingly remained Furloughed.

If you need evidence, look no further than when substitute Jordan Bowery swung a boot at a cross, only to set-up Newport for their equaliser. If you need more evidence, take a look at the awarding of a penalty for the hosts late on for handball against Menayese, it was dubious and soft to say the least.

I could delve into the debate about the manager or rip into the players for their errors, but now isn’t the right time – we’ve played four league games for goodness sake with this side! I could also delve into the Danny Rose transfer, which I think is a mistake – but that’s for another day and another time.

There’s far too much negativity in the world at the moment, football is supposed to be our escape from that, so today I’ll leave it with tongue in cheek comments.

We do need to bring in a commanding, experienced defender, maybe a midfielder too BUT, I fully believe that we will come good sooner rather than later and when we do, it’ll be something special – after all, doesn’t the furlough scheme end soon?   

Click HERE to read the clubs official match report.

​STAGS: Aidan Stone | Rollin Menayese, Farrend Rawson, Ryan Sweeney | Corey O’Keeffe (Andy Cook 90+2), James Perch, Ollie Clarke © (Alistair Smith 84), George Maris, Stephen McLaughlin | Nicky Maynard (Jordan Bowery 75), Jamie Reid
Unused Subs: Maison Campbell, Aaron O’Driscoll, Harry Charsley, Mal Benning