Newport produced their best performance so far in the European indoor club championships, but still remain without a win.
Slovakian champions, SKPH Senkvice, placed second after the first two days’ play, endured some tricky moments during the first half.  But Newport failed to convert their short corners and found themselves trailing 3 - 0 at half-time.  An early goal from a Jamie Westerman penalty corner and some excellent bustling work from his team-mates resulted in a much closer score line in the second half, but the final result again ended 5 - 1.

The Newport team manager said the tournament had showed up the lack of regular indoor hockey played in Wales.  “The further the tournament has progressed the more apparent it has become that Newport and Avoca of Ireland are the only two teams not playing indoors regularly,” he said.

However, that didn’t prevent the Irish from pulling off the shock of the competition so far, in holding the rampant Portuguese hosts AA Espinho to a draw.  Espinho remain undefeated and favourites to win the seven nation tournament.