Newport moved up to fourth in the League Two table with a battling 1-0 victory but manager Nelson Jardim admitted struggling opponents Morecambe deserved something from the game.
Aaron Wildig scored the only goal against his former club after being gifted the chance by Morecambe keeper Stuart Moore’s poor clearance as the Exiles made it three wins from four this season.
From there Morecambe dominated but some fine saves from Nick Townsend saw the visitors through to gain the three points.
New Newport boss Jardim said: “Morecambe are a good side and probably deserved more from the game but we managed it well.
“We had to work hard to keep a clean sheet to win the three points and we showed that we are a good group, which was really important for me too because it shows how willing we are to compete when we need to.
“We are still getting to know the boys really because we have had a lot of new players coming in but they showed today what they have shown on the training ground. That was our first clean sheet of the season and the hard work we have been putting in in training really paid off this afternoon.”
Wildig’s goal came in the ninth minute with Courtney Baker-Richardson missing a golden chance to double the lead seven minutes later before the home side took charge.
Gwion Edwards forced Townsend into a brilliant reflex save with a close-range effort before the break and Hallam Hope had a goal disallowed for offside early in the second half as he scored from close range.
Townsend had to be at his best to tip away a Callum Jones free-kick and the visitors survived a number of goalmouth scrambles as the Shrimps searched desperately for their first point of the season.
Morecambe boss Derek Adams found it hard to fault his players after their fourth successive 1-0 defeat of the new campaign.
He said: “We made a huge error with the goalkeeper taking a poor touch allowing them to score and that has allowed them to get the win.
“Overall I thought we were excellent from start to finish in the game and our goalkeeper hasn’t had a save to make.
“We missed some good chances today, were unfortunate to have a goal disallowed and their goalkeeper made a number of brilliant saves to keep them in the game.
“Their centre-forward should have been sent off but nothing seems to be going our way at the moment. That is three games out of four where from a coaching and technical point of view I am actually delighted with the way we are playing and improving, but we just need to be more clinical and something has to go our way.”
