Cheltenham Town suffered more away day misery as they slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat on a wet and blustery night at Rodney Parade.

Home striker Padraig Amond netted the only goal of a tightly contested league encounter when he turned home a wayward shot at the back post just after the half hour mark.

The Robins created promising openings of their own, with Mo Eisa coming close in the opening half and captain Kyle Storer twice denied in the closing stages.

But, after the stalemate at Yeovil just four days earlier, it was another day of frustration for Gary Johnson’s men who were left to rue a cutting edge in front of goal.

The gaffer made one change to his starting line-up as Will Boyle came into the starting line-up, to replace a concussed Jamie Grimes, while Nigel Atangana and Dan Holman were missing through injury.

In murky conditions, the visitors started brightly as Danny Wright forced an early corner and confusion reigned as Boyle looked to poke the ball goalwards.

With the wind firmly in their faces, the Robins tried at every opportunity to get the ball down and play through midfield on a greasy surface, with Harry Pell and Joe Morrell pulling the strings from the start.

At the other end, in-form hitman Frank Nouble looked to get in behind but the impressive Taylor Moore – part of another strong defensive show from the Robins - timed his tackle to perfection to intercept.

The first big opening of the game came Cheltenham’s way at the mid-point of the half as Eisa was gifted the ball 30 yards out by a wayward Matty Dolan pass.

The striker duly picked the ball up and ran it two defenders, but under-pressure saw his floated strike fly narrow wide of the target with Day beaten.

Scott Flinders showed all his agility to produce a superb finger-tip stop to deny Owen-Evans from 25 yards out but he could do nothing about the Newport opener minutes later.

There was a touch of fortune as a miss-hit shot from Ben White, that was going wide from a corner, ran kindly into the path of Amond, but he made no mistake from six yards out.

Johnson made a double change at the break, with Gordon and Sellars on for Wright and Eisa while Pell was pushed up top.

The quick feet of Sellars almost made a quick impact as he flew past two men, but after laying the ball off to Kevin Dawson the Irishman lost his footing as he looked to connect.

Cheltenham continued to press for an equaliser and were inches from levelling it up when Morrell dug out a cross and Storer’s header beat home stopper Day but was cleared off the line by a retreating White.

The visitors started to throw men forward in the final quarter and also introduced yet more fire-power with Freddie Hinds brought on. 

But there was to be no late salvation as Storer was denied once more, this time by Day at point blank range in injury time, as the Robins returned home pointless.

CHELTENHAM TOWN: Flinders; Cranston, Boyle, Moore, Winchester, Pell, Morrell (Hinds 80), Storer (c), Dawson, Eisa (Sellars 46), Wright (Gordon 46). Subs not used: Flatt (Gk), O’Shaugnessy, Bower

NEWPORT COUNTY: Day, Pipe (c), Butler, White, Dolan, Amond, Nouble, Bennett, Owen-Evans (Willmott 69), Rigg (Tozer 75), Demetriou. Subs not used: Bittiner, Cole, Reynolds, Quigley, Jahraldo 

REFEREE: G Ward

ATTENDANCE: 2,916 (231 from Cheltenham)