Salford City failed to make ground on their promotion rivals as they slipped to an underwhelming 3-1 defeat at Newport County.
Ben Woodburn’s late consolation goal was not enough for Karl Robinson’s side on a night where they struggled to create clear-cut chances against League Two’s bottom side.
And the Salford boss said the defeat was purely down to “human error” by his players in attack and defence, rather than tactical shortcomings.
After a low-key start to the contest, Newport took a 13th-minute lead when defender Ryan Delaney emerged from a sea of bodies to head home the opener from a Tom Davies, putting Country in front.
Salford struggled to get going in a stop-start first half, Matt Butcher struck a low effort that was comfortably held by Jordan Wright, before Kelly N’Mai had a shot drift wide.
Matt Butcher found the ball at his feet just past the half-hour mark. He quickly shifted the ball to his left and fired low into the corner. Jordan Wright did well to get down and deny the midfielder.
Newport, who had been without a win in their previous five games, defended resolutely and survived a barrage of speculative efforts to lead at the break.
Throughout the season, Salford have improved drastically in the second half when trailing at the break, but failed to build momentum against the Exiles.
Newport doubled their advantage after 56 minutes when attacker Ben Lloyd jinked through the Salford defence and rounded goalkeeper Matty Young to score in an empty net.
Three minutes later, the Welsh side had another. After Lloyd again found himself on goal, his shot was saved, but the ball cruelly rebounded into the path of substitute Nathaniel Opoku, who smashed home Newport’s third.
Salford desperately tried to claw their way back into the contest and began to throw numbers forward as the half progressed.
While many supporters refused to leave the Peninsula Stadium early, believing Robinson’s men could stage an unlikely comeback, Salford spurned a host of chances as Ryan Graydon headed wide.
Those who still stuck around were given something to cheer about when, in the 94th minute, Ben Woodburn took a superb shot from distance to pull a goal back.
A great volley from Woody ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/q8HYwI3Im2
— Salford City FC (@SalfordCityFC) February 18, 2026
Graydon then missed a golden chance to set up a grandstand finish when he fired wide to the disbelief of the 3,000 fans in attendance, killing any hope of a comeback.
The defeat meant that Karl Robinson’s side slipped to seventh place in League Two.
He lamented the club’s wastefulness in attack and labelled Newport’s opener as “one of the worst goals” the team have conceded this season.
He said: “At this moment in time, we’re not getting the rub of the green.
“But that has to fuel our fire and there are so many other teams that are going to have so many dips between now and the end of the season.
“We are at a low ebb, but we have to start building confidence and make sure things are better moving forward.
“I have to respect that once they went ahead, they made it difficult for us to get into any rhythm.
“Their first goal is probably one of the worst we will concede all season because we knew exactly what they were going to do.
“Then their second goal was human error and the third goal was human error as well.
“And then from then on, we created multiple opportunities and the human error in how we finished the opportunities was very, very clear.
“We certainly have the quality to win. We have the quality defenders, we have the quality forwards. But sometimes they have off nights.”
Robinson’s men will look to pick themselves up off the canvas as they travel to Cheltenham Town on Saturday, 21 February, 3pm kick-off.
