Cardiff City 0-1 Newport County: Exiles spoil historic night for hosts with deserved win

Newport County put their League Two struggles to one side to claim a deserved win over a much-changed Cardiff City in the EFL Trophy.

A Tom Davies header on the stroke of half-time proved to be enough to seal victory for the visitors, who had previously struck the crossbar through Nathaniel Opoku.

The result eases some of the pressure on County boss David Hughes, who has so far overseen a difficult start to the new season, with his side winning just one of their opening 11 league games.

Cardiff made ten changes from the thrilling win over Leyton Orient at the weekend, with Brian Barry-Murphy handing a debut to highly-rated youngster Rob Tankiewicz, who at 16 years and 120 days briefly became the club's youngest ever player, surpassing Aaron Ramsey's record by three days.

His record wouldn't last, however, as he made way for 15-year-old Axel Donczew on 65 minutes. A nice moment on what was otherwise a difficult night for City.

Indeed, despite the widespread changes, Barry-Murphy will have been disappointed at the way his team fared in this contest, against a Newport side that had admittedly made just four alterations for the 1-0 defeat to Swindon Town at the weekend.

Bobby Kamwa and David Turnbull both exchanged early wayward efforts, before Opoku flicked an effort onto the bar after just 11 minutes.

Kamwa's dangerous ball across goal should probably have been knocked in for the opener around 10 minutes later, and when Habeeb Ogunneye was forced off with an injury in the aftermath, Newport would be forgiven for thinking they'd missed their opportunity to make their bright start count.

A hefty deflection turned Kamwa's crashing drive round the post, before Opoku was denied by a fine one-on-one save by City keeper Matthew