2015–16 Newport County A.F.C. season

Newport County

2015–16 season
Owner	Newport County AFC Supporters Trust
Chairman	Tony Pring (interim)
Manager	Terry Butcher until 1 October 2015 John Sheridan until 13 January 2016 Warren Feeney from 15 January 2016
Stadium	Rodney Parade
League Two	22nd
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	First round
League Trophy	First round
Top goalscorer	League: Scott Boden (13) All: Scott Boden (15)
Highest home attendance	5,083 v Blackburn Rovers (18 January 2016), FA Cup round 3
Lowest home attendance	1,434 v Swindon Town (1 September 2015), Football League Trophy round 1
Average home league attendance	2,731
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 season was Newport County's third consecutive season in League Two and 63rd season in the Football League. The season covered the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016. It was their 95th season of league football and 27th since reforming in 1989. They finished the season in 22nd place. The club also participated in the FA Cup, League Cup and League Trophy, reaching Round 3 of the FA Cup for the first time since 1986.

Season Review[]

League[]

Former England Manager Terry Butcher had been announced as manager in April, but his tenure lasted a mere ten games. During that spell County recorded only one win and seven losses, and lay rooted at the foot of the table. His replacement John Sheridan was announced on 2 October. Sheridan managed to get county out of the relegation places and up to 20th in the table by 12 January 2016 when he was poached by former club Oldham Athletic. He had enjoyed a ten-match unbeaten run between mid-20 October and 1 December, with an overall record of five wins, five defeats and seven draws from 17 games in charge. After three defeats and a draw in his last four games he left with County just three points above the relegation zone. Assistant manager Warren Feeney was announced as manager on 15 January. Feeney's tenure started with a win at York City, but he only managed another five wins in the rest of the season. County had risen as high as 17th in the table following the 3–0 win at Portsmouth and 0–0 draw home to Hartlepool United, but a disastrous spell of six straight defeats left them in 22nd place 11 points clear of relegation with 12 left to play for. A 1–1 draw with Oxford United combined with York's win at Portsmouth put County nine points ahead with nine to play for, but with an 11 superior goal difference. Any relegation doubts were extinguished by Newport's 1–1 draw at Luton. However the bad results continued for the remainder of the season and into the next, which ultimately cost Feeny his job. Newport lost the last two games of this season and failed to score a single goal, finishing in 22nd place.

Cup[]

In the first round of the League Cup, Newport travelled to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite taking the lead in the 6th minute, the scores were level by the 15th, with County eventually losing 2–1 due to a 58th-minute Wolves penalty.

In the League Trophy Newport were home to Swindon Town. With the game finishing 1–1 it entered a penalty shootout. With Aaron Collins missing the seventh penalty and Will Randall scoring his, Swindon went through 7–6.

In the FA Cup, County were drawn away in the first round to Conference North qualifiers Brackley Town. Newport were leading 2–1 in stoppage time, until former County player Curtis McDonald headed home a 95th-minute equaliser to force a replay. That game was won 4–1 to set up a second round game with fellow League Two side Barnet. Newport recorded a 1–0 victory at The Hive to progress to the third round for the first time since 1986. The third-round game at home to Championship side Blackburn Rovers started in the worst possible way for County with Rovers taking the lead thanks to an 8th-minute penalty. Mark Byrne equalised for County from 25 yards on 30 minutes to leave the scores 1–1 at half time. With 15 minutes remaining in the game Jordan Rhodes scored the winner for Rovers to send them into the 4th round.

Results summary[]

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
46	10	13	23	43	64	−21	43	4	8	11	21	35	−14	6	5	12	22	29	−7

Results by round[]

Transfers[]

Transfers in[]

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
1 July 2015	MF		Tom Owen-Evans	Academy	Trainee	[1]
1 July 2015	MF		Kieran Parselle	Academy	Trainee	[2]
1 July 2015	DF		Scott Barrow	Macclesfield Town	Free transfer	[3]
1 July 2015	GK		Rhys Taylor	Macclesfield Town	Free transfer	[3]
1 July 2015	FW		Lenell John-Lewis	Grimsby Town	Free transfer	[3]
1 July 2015	MF		Alex Rodman	Gateshead	Free transfer	[4]
1 July 2015	DF		Danny Holmes	Tranmere Rovers	Free transfer	[5]
1 July 2015	DF		Nathan Ralph	Yeovil Town	Free transfer	[6]
1 July 2015	DF		Seth Nana Twumasi	Yeovil Town	Free transfer	[6]
1 July 2015	MF		Medy Elito	VVV-Venlo	Free transfer	[7]
6 July 2015	DF		Matt Taylor	Cheltenham Town	Free transfer	[8]
13 July 2015	FW		Scott Boden	FC Halifax Town	Free transfer	[9]
1 September 2015	DF		Matt Partridge	Basingstoke Town	Free transfer	[10]
6 November 2015	GK		Joe Green	Unattached	Free transfer
21 January 2016	FW		John-Christophe Ayina	Unattached	Free transfer
25 January 2016	DF		Darren Jones	Unattached	Free transfer
10 February 2016	FW		Dean Morgan	Unattached	Free transfer
18 February 2016	FW		Tom Meechan	St Neots Town	Undisclosed

Loans in[]

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Date until	Ref.
6 August 2015	DF		Aaron Hayden	Wolverhampton Wanderers	10 October 2015	[11]
19 August 2015	MF		Josh Laurent	Brentford	8 October 2015	[12]
20 August 2015	FW		Zak Ansah	Charlton Athletic	13 December 2015	[13]
24 September 2015	FW		Tyler Blackwood	Queens Park Rangers	24 October 2015	[14]
24 September 2015	DF		Janoi Donacien	Aston Villa	End of season	[15]
8 October 2015	MF		Scot Bennett	Notts County	31 December 2015
13 October 2015	DF		Jazzi Barnum-Bobb	Cardiff City	7 January 2016
13 October 2015	MF		Tommy O'Sullivan	Cardiff City	7 January 2016
26 November 2015	FW		Oli McBurnie	Swansea City	24 December 2015
7 January 2016	DF		Ben Davies	Preston North End	End of season
7 January 2016	MF		Connor Dymond	Crystal Palace	14 February 2016
15 January 2016	GK		Mitchell Beeney	Chelsea	25 February 2016
21 January 2016	FW		Deane Smalley	Plymouth Argyle	End of season
21 January 2016	FW		Conor Wilkinson	Bolton Wanderers	20 March 2016
26 February 2016	MF		Jake Gosling	Bristol Rovers	29 March 2016
11 March 2016	MF		Tommy O'Sullivan	Cardiff City	End of season
24 March 2016	FW		Souleymane Coulibaly	Peterborough United	End of season

Transfers out[]

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
1 September 2015	CB		Kevin Feely	Free agent	Mutual consent	[16]
1 September 2015	CB		Regan Poole	Manchester United	Undisclosed
22 January 2016	FW		Aaron Collins	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Undisclosed
1 February 2016	DF		Matt Taylor	Free agent	Released
10 May 2016	GK		Joe Green	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	GK		Rhys Taylor	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	DF		Scott Barrow	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	DF		Matt Partridge	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	DF		Seth Nana Twumasi	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	DF		Nathan Ralph	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	MF		Yan Klukowski	Free agent	Released	[17]
10 May 2016	FW		Dean Morgan	Free agent	Released	[17]
6 June 2016	DF		Andrew Hughes	Free agent	Released
9 June 2016	FW		Scott Boden	Free agent	Released
13 June 2016	FW		John-Christophe Ayina	Free agent	Released
13 June 2016	MF		Medy Elito	Free agent	Released
13 June 2016	MF		Mark Byrne	Free agent	Released
13 June 2016	DF		Danny Holmes	Free agent	Released
18 June 2016	MF		Alex Rodman	Free agent	Released

Loans out[]

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Date until	Ref.
29 October 2015	GK		Rhys Taylor	Wrexham	End of season
12 February 2016	DF		Nathan Ralph	Aldershot Town	End of season

Managerial statistics[]

Only competitive games from the 2015–16 season are included.

Name	Nat.	From	To	Record								Honours
				PLD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W%
Terry Butcher		30 April 2015	1 October 2015	12	1	2	9	8	21	−13	008.3
John Sheridan		2 October 2015	13 January 2016	17	5	7	5	26	26	+0	029.4
Warren Feeney		15 January 2016	–	23	6	5	12	17	27	−10	026.1

Competitions[]

Pre-season friendlies[]

On 20 May 2015, Newport County announced their first four friendlies against Undy, Port Talbot Town, Bath City and Eastleigh.^[18] A fifth against Weston-super-Mare was added on 21 May.^[18] On 11 July 2015, Newport County added a trip to Torquay United.^[19]

League Two[]

League Cup[]

Football League Trophy[]

On 8 August 2015, live on Soccer AM the draw for the first round of the Football League Trophy was drawn by Toni Duggan and Alex Scott.

FA Cup[]

References[]