George Maris’ second-half strike proved decisive as Mansfield Town battled to a hard-fought win at Rodney Parade.

After a first-half of few chances, the midfielder fired home from the left of the box on 50 minutes and Stags should have made the win more comfortable thereafter given the flurry of chances created.

At the other end, Mansfield defended resiliently and goalkeeper Christy Pym was a relative bystander throughout.

Hiram Boateng, Ollie Clarke and Stephen Quinn returned to midfield while Tom Nichols also started as part of four changes from last Saturday’s 5-1 thumping at home to Salford City.

Stags started brightly and after two minutes Maris, closely monitored by a Newport defender inside the box, nodded over from Keillor-Dunn’s floated right-wing cross.

Referee Adam Herczeg produced the game’s first yellow card seven minutes later as Aaron Wildig chopped down Clarke as the midfielder broke forward.

Newport’s first meaningful opportunity came in the 17th minute when top scorer Will Evans headed wide at the back post from Adam Lewis’ inswinging corner.

Midway inside the opening half, Keillor-Dunn struck low from 25 yards but Townsend was able to make a relatively routine stop diving to his left.

Stags began to press and Boateng was next to try his luck from a Clarke corner which was cleared inside the goal area.

Clarke himself had a better opportunity a minute later when he turned his man from 15 yards, but his low left-footed hit was straight at Townsend.

From then on in, both sides cancelled each other out in a hard-fought final 20 minutes of the half.

Stags missed a golden opportunity to take the lead three minutes after the restart.

Like he did against Salford last weekend, right-back George Williams delivered another perfectly-weighted cross but an unmarked Hiram Boateng headed off target from 12 yards.

But Mansfield needn’t have worried as they took the upper hand on 50 minutes.

Keillor-Dunn caused the initial problems by sending the home defence into a merry dance inside the box.

And moments later, Cargill’s low assist on the left found Maris who steered a well-aimed shot beyond Townsend at his near post.

The midfielder came close two minutes when he cut onto his right foot from the left of the area to arrow a shot over the angle.

Stags were in the ascendancy and on 57 minutes Cargill and Maris linked up again, this time with latter delivering a high cross and the former heading into the palms of Townsend.

On the hour, both sides made three changes which took almost as many minutes to transpire.

For Mansfield, experienced trio Stephen Quinn, Jordan Bowery and Lucas Akins took to the field as Clarke, Boateng and Nichols made way.

Stags were soon on the attack again and Keillor-Dunn weaved his way into the box, and after nutmegging a Newport defender the forward saw his right-footed effort deflect narrowly behind for a corner.

Cargill again found space on the left to pick out Quinn and the Irishman sent a fine pass into the feet of Keillor-Dunn who worked a shot which was held by Townsend.

With less than 20 minutes to play, Aaron Lewis returned to his former stomping ground to replace goalscorer Maris.

Townsend was needed again on 76 minutes to beat away Cargill’s driven effort.

Keillor-Dunn departed on 84 minutes as McLaughlin entered the fray in Nigel Clough’s final change.

Mansfield were gunning for a second goal and Lewis’ rising shot sailed behind as the clock ticked towards the 90.

And in the second minute of stoppage time, Lewis was a stride away from connecting with Quinn’s square pass following a rapid counter-punch, but Townsend raced to ground and claim.

Newport tried to push Stags back in the dying minutes, however true to the match, Mansfield professionally extinguished any home threat.
NEWPORT: Townsend, Clarke (Drysdale 63), Jameson (Zanzala 60), Baker, Payne (Bright 74), Lewis, Wildig (Jephcott 73), Bennett, Morris, Palmer-Houlden (Charsley 62), Evans

UNUSED SUBS: Maxted, Waite

STAGS: Pym, Williams, Flint, Brunt, Cargill, Reed, Clarke (Bowery 61), Boateng (Quinn 61), Maris (Lewis 71), Keillor-Dunn (McLaughlin 84), Nichols (Akins 61)

UNUSED SUBS: Flinders, Gale

REFEREE: Adam Herczeg

ATTENDANCE: TBA (615 Stags’ fans)