The Great Escape: Newport County 2016-17

by Andrew Penman

The Great Newport County 2016-17 tells the amazing story of how local boy Michael Flynn and his team beat the bookies' odds and confounded their critics to secure their place in the English Football League. On March 4, 2017, Newport County AFC were bottom of League Two and a massive 11 points from safety - with just 12 games left to play - after a 4-0 thrashing at home to closest rivals Leyton Orient. Five days later, experienced manager Graham Westley was sacked with the club seemingly doomed to return to the non-league wilderness where they had spent 25 years before winning promotion in 2013. `The Exiles' looked dead and buried before hometown hero Michael Flynn was appointed caretaker manager and tasked with the `mission impossible' of salvaging their season. Written by South Wales Argus football reporter Andrew Penman and featuring all-new interviews with those at the heart of the story, it is essential reading for all County supporters and Welsh football lovers. A remarkable six wins in the next 11 games saw the Exiles climb out of the bottom two ahead of a final-day showdown with Notts County at Newport's Rodney Parade on May 6. With the match level and relegation rivals Hartlepool United winning, County were destined for the drop with just 90 seconds of the season remaining. But there was one more twist worthy of Hollywood itself as defender Mark O'Brien volleyed in a spectacular 89th-minute winner and Newport's biggest football crowd since 1983 poured onto the pitch to celebrate an incredible end to an incredible story.

128 pages, Paperback

Published December 18, 2017

About the author

I am now a fit person nearly 50 years of age I’m going to live until I’m 161 as I’m partially psychic. I Train in the Martial Art Called AIKIDO which I treat as physiotherapy, I go SWIMMING. I joined a dating agency in THAILAND with out telling no one where I was going or what I was doing and are now married. I’ve passed my DRIVING TEST, after being told NOT TO DRIVE

Reviews

[Dalyn Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Escape: Newport County 2016_17 is a gripping, emotionally charged, and expertly reported account of one of modern football’s most improbable survival stories. Andrew Penman captures not only the tension and turmoil of a season on the brink but the spirit, history, and heart of a club that refused to accept its fate.

From the moment Newport County dropped to the bottom of League Two 11 points adrift with only 12 matches remaining you place readers directly into the stakes of the crisis. The transition from Graham Westley’s departure to Michael Flynn’s appointment as caretaker manager is rendered with precision, offering both narrative momentum and an insider’s understanding of the club’s culture and community.

The book shines brightest in its human texture. Through fresh interviews, detailed match reporting, and a journalist’s instinct for pacing, you reconstruct each turning point of the Exiles’ resurrection. The improbable run six wins in eleven matches feels both cinematic and grounded, a testament to discipline, belief, and collective resolve.

And then comes the finale: the final day showdown at Rodney Parade. Mark O’Brien’s 89th-minute volley, as you present it, reads like a scene scripted for film, yet its power lies in its authenticity. You capture the eruption of the home crowd its largest since 1983 as not just celebration, but catharsis.

This is more than a football chronicle; it is a story of survival, identity, and the extraordinary resilience of a club that has lived through more abandonment, adversity, and revival than most. The Great Escape is essential reading for supporters, sports historians, and anyone who loves a true underdog miracle.