Red-hot Liam Holder leads the Newport charge

The visitors arrived at Forton Road on the back of an impressive run of three straight wins but were no match for a Newport outfit who have their sights set on an instant return to the National League.

Liam Holder was the headline act, touching down four times as the hosts eased to a 47-10 success much to the delight of director of rugby Chris Wilde.

"Sutton came into the match on the back of three straight wins so we weren't expecting this to be as easy as it turned out," said Wilde.

"That said, we played extremely well and the result was never in doubt. Perhaps we took our foot off the pedal a bit in the second half but the game was already won and it gave us the chance to try out one or two different combinations"

It was Sutton who opened the scoring with a penalty, but that was the last time they would trouble the scoreboard operator until the dying minutes of the game.

Newport responded in style as Nathan Parker, Ash Paterson and Henry Vaka combined to set up Holder for his first try of the day, which he also converted.

The home side continued to dominate and with Kirk Robinson, Mike Venn and Parker gaining the hard yards it was only a matter of time before Sutton cracked again.

Holder's penalty to within 10 metres of the visitors' line set up the catch and drive from which Paterson nipped round the fringes to score. Holder added the extras.

Newport looked dangerous every time they had the ball and some good phases from the pack followed by some fine interplay between Jamie Robinson, Sam Hughes, Jake Goulson, Jonny Stiles and Vaka produced a simple second try for Holder to make it 19-3.

Vaka then ghosted through to feed Hughes for another score, with Holder converting.

Sutton were visibly wilting at this stage and it was no surprise when they conceded again, Josh Evans being put into space down the left and making excellent ground before timing his pass superbly to Holder, who crossed again. Another successful conversion made it 33-3 at half-time.

Newport struck again early in the second half as Paterson scored and Holder converted . Holder crossed again and added another kick to make it 47-3. Sutton had the final say with a converted try late on.