91Èȱ¬

Newport overcame a battling Cheltenham side to rise to fifth place in League Two after Chris Zebroski's first-half strike against his former club.

Zebroski, 28, scored his seventh of the season, and his second in two days, with a 20-yard shot on 11 minutes.

Defender Ismail Yakubu nearly doubled County's advantage, but his second-half header was cleared off the line.

Cheltenham applied plenty of pressure but drop to 19th in the table ahead of their trip to Oxford on Saturday.

Cheltenham Town manager Paul Buckle told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Gloucestershire:

"I'm absolutely gutted. I thought we were very good considering the two players that had come out the team.

"It was everything I wanted from a performance although I'm obviously disappointed with the goal.

"I thought this was a totally different Cheltenham team to what I took over.

"I was really proud of them but I'm just gutted we didn't get a minimum of a point."

Newport manager Justin Edinburgh:

"We rode our luck slightly in the first half, but we were resilient second half.

"You've got to come away from home, keep clean sheets, then you've always got a chance of winning a game and the goal that won it was a very good finish.

"We're not always going to be able to play free-flowing football away from home, but the way we defended and the work rate was immense.

"I certainly felt that, once we got a grip of their system a little bit in the first half, we were good in the second half."