Marked for Andy Cannon
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Sep 2026
0‑3 against Portsmouth, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Newport County are taken apart by Portsmouth — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Newport County are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Andy Cannon falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Newport County dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
20 new faces, and Newport County are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
François-Joseph Sollacaro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Courtney Baker-Richardson, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aden Baldwin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Ged Garner again, and this time the name on the line is PSIM. Newport County are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
François-Joseph Sollacaro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match29 Aug 2026
Bromley made Newport County work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Reece Cole at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Newport County.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Andy Cannon falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Newport County
19 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Steven Sessegnon has just signed for Newport County, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad17 Aug 2026
François-Joseph Sollacaro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Callum Guy
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Andy Cannon
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Newport County will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Newport County, another week without a signature from Steven Sessegnon.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Newport County
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Salford City came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market17 Aug 2026
Henry Ward told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Henry Ward has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Newport County.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Reece Cole and Newport County agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jordan Graham was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Courtney Baker-Richardson is a Newport County player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market10 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Matt Smith
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.