COUNTY 3 READING 3

ON a night when the nation obsessed over the royal baby, the baby Royals held Newport County AFC to a 3-3 draw at Spytty Park.

County’s latest pre-season friendly against a Reading XI made up of the Royals’ youth team marked the testimonial of former Exiles kit man Tony Gilbert.

None of the players on show were born when Gilbert started work at Somerton Park 38 years ago and a crowd of 765 turned up to pay tribute to the club stalwart at Spytty.

It was the club’s first match at Newport Stadium since the defeat to Wrexham in April 2012 and the trip down memory lane proved a happy one with Chris Zebroski netting two first-half goals.

The pitch was a lot better than it used to be and Zebroski was the star of the show.

He scored his first in a County shirt after only seven minutes and he won’t have many easier finishes.

The young Reading defence failed to clear Robbie Willmott’s cross from the left and the ball fell invitingly for Zebroski to stroke the ball home from just six yards out.

Gozie Ugwu levelled for Reading after 24 minutes when Jamie Stephens saved from Lawson D’ath but the ball was deflected in off Ugwu.

But Zebroski quickly put the Exiles ahead again, running at the young visiting defence and beating goalkeeper Jonathan Henly from the edge of the area.

County, lining up in a 4-3-3 formation, dominated for long stretches of the first half and the only negative was the injuries that forced off both Willmott and Mike Flynn, who were replaced by Lee Minshull and Max Porter.

Edinburgh took the opportunity to take a look at former Macclesfield Town defender Ryan Jackson at right-back and also gave fellow triallist Ryan Doble a start up front.

In truth neither grasped the chance to shine in a first 45 minutes bossed by new boys Adam Chapman and Zebroski.

The second half fell a bit flat with the visitors marginally more impressive and County slightly disjointed.

D’ath made it 2-2 on 52 minutes after good work by Ugwu and the hosts struggled to regain the initiative.

Captain David Pipe replac-ed Jackson with 15 minutes remaining as Edinburgh’s men pushed for a winner.

Zebroski missed the chance of a hat-trick when he headed Chapman’s free-kick onto the post and at the other end Stephens did superbly to dive at the feet of Shepherd Murumbedzi and snuff out the danger.

Murumbedzi then scored from the spot on 87 minutes after Stephens brought down Liam Kelly, but County were not to be denied and Minshull headed in a deserved equalizer in the last minute.

County: Stephens, Hughes, Yakubu, Chapman, Worley, Jackson, Willmott, Flynn, Zebroski, Doble, Washington

Subs: Pipe, Porter, James, Minshull, Crow, Sandell, Anthony, Jolley

Reading XI: Henly, Long, Griffin, Tshibola, Hector, Cooper, Tanner, D'ath, Ugwu, Taylor, Neita