Newport County 4-0 Harrogate Town: Dom Telford scores twice as Exiles triumph

Dom Telford (left) is League Two's top scorer with 17 in the competition this season

Dom Telford struck twice as Newport County hammered Harrogate Town to continue their League Two promotion push.

Josh Falkingham's early foul on Telford gave Mickey Demetriou the chance to open the scoring from the penalty spot.

Telford scored the second himself as he combined with Finn Azaz to give Newport a 2-0 advantage at the break.

Azaz was again provider as Telford claimed his second and Courtney Baker-Richardson added the fourth.

The Exiles were playing behind closed doors amid Covid-19 restrictions in Wales that are drawing to a close and while manager James Rowberry was absent because he has Covid-19.

Instead Wayne Hatswell was in charge at Rodney Parade as Newport rose two places to fifth ahead of the afternoon's later games.

Stand-in boss Wayne Hatswell:

"Gladly we were winning 2-0 at half-time and it was just about then trying to make the right changes, just be positive and then hopefully get a couple more goals and then once we scored the third one I think you could feel that they were dead a buried a bit.

"So it was really pleasing, but I'm sure he'd (Rowberry) be really gland that the team's gone on to put a good performance in."

On Telford, Hatswell said: "I wanted to try and leave him on so he could try and get his hat-trick, but when he went down in the corner you just start to think maybe there's a little bit of fatigue in him and we want to look after him so if there'd been fans in the building today he's have got a massive standing ovation on the way off [87th minute]."