September 23, 2023 - 1648 views
Two goals from Alex Downes gave the Seagulls hope of rescuing a point, but in the end a dreadul opening 20 minutes left them with too much to do in a 2-4 defeat against in-form Newtown.
With the Bay defence badly missing the unavailable Sam Hart, the Latham Park side were 3-0 up inside 18 minutes and a controversial late fourth goal secured their fourth win in a row.
There were some positives to take from a spirited Bay fightback, but in the end they paid the price for that awful start, with manager Steve Evans blaming “schoolboy defending”.
Louis Robles opened the scoring for Newtown after only three minutes with a smart finish and he added a second eight minutes later when he was given too much time and space to get his shot away.
Some shambolic Bay defending allowed Zell Ismail to add Newtown’s third on 18 minutes from close range.
The Bay did come back into it and actually created enough chances to have got level before half-time, but Nick Rushton and Matty Hill both missed good opportunities before Alex Downes rifled a shot into the top corner of the net on 41 minutes after Tom Creamer had missed from two yards out.
The Bay skipper then headed a second from a Jamie Cumming corner on 68 minutes to make it 2-3 and give Bay some hope, but they couldn’t force an equaliser.
After Stefan Edwards had cleared off the line, Newtown were allowed to keep playing when Bay had Dylan Allshorn down with a bad injuryand in some distress, to wrap up their win with a fourth goal from substitute Jason Oswell on 87 minutes.
Furthermore Manager Steve Evans was very unhappy that the referee allowed play to go for so long when Dylan was down injured. Hear his comments on this and other aspects of the match at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e15050SL5o
