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Mickey Demetriou's injury-time header deepened Hartlepool United's relegation worries as Newport County's recent improvement continued.

Hartlepool are just a point clear of the bottom two, but Crawley in 23rd have four games in hand.

Pools battled hard to earn what would have been a vital win, but they failed to register a shot on target.

The Exiles improved after the break and found their winner when Demetriou's headed home from Aaron Lewis' corner.

The victory sees Newport rise to 16th, 11 points clear of the League Two drop zone.

Newport County manager Graham Coughlan said:

"I'm really pleased for the lads because I work with them every days and I see the effort that they put in.

"I thought they managed the game tremendously well on a difficult pitch and a difficult night and there was a little bit riding on the game as well. They showed maturity.

"We'll take the 1-0 but there were four, five opportunities that we maybe should have polished off."