Newport sunk by Longton's late tries

Newport were sunk by two late tries at home to Longton - condemning them to a second consecutive National League Three Midlands defeat.

The Forton Road men had looked on course for success but sloppy defending allowed the visitors to snatch it away from them.

Newport had to settle for picking up one bonus point from their 21-18 defeat, their reward for losing the game by less than seven points.

"It was a much improved performance from last week's defeat at Old Northamptonians," said team manager Gareth Davies.

"I wouldn't go as far as saying we should have won, but we certainly could've done.

"I couldn't fault the spirit and commitment of the players but we just made a couple of basic mistakes — both their tries came from errors we made."

The scores were tied at 11-11 at half-time, winger Steven Leach with Newport's try and Jamie Simpson kicking two penalties.

Debutant Owen Evans added a second try after ther break after being set up by Toby Mann, Simpson adding the conversion.

But hopes of a home win were dashed by those two converted tries for Longton in the last 15 minutes, the league leaders maintaining their 100 per cent record as a result.

Struggling Hereford crashed to another heavy defeat when they went down 36-5 to a confident Broadstreet side.

The Coventry-based club completely outplayed Hereford, running in three tries —including a brace from Carl Southwell — to move up into second place in National League Three Midlands.

Hereford replied with a touchdown in the second half but were always second best against dominant Broadstreet.