County beaten at Parade by four-goal Reading
- Published
Newport County suffered a 4-0 pre-season defeat by League One Reading at Rodney Parade.
Interim Exiles boss Chris Todd gave starts to five summer signings and teenager Harri Pugh on the right wing but it was one of the Royals' new recruits that opened the scoring.
Former Portsmouth forward Jacob Brown slotted home calmly from the edge of the area after 10 minutes and Reading had further chances to extend the lead before the break.
They doubled their advantage early in the second half when Josh Stokes finished a neat move after the visitors capitalised on Yahya Bamba's misplaced pass.
Jerae Jones added two more goals in a dominant performance by the Royals, who finish their pre-season against Crawley and Charlton.
Rodney Parade was sparsely populated for the visit of Reading but should be packed to the rafters on Tuesday, 4 August as Newport host Italian giants Roma.
The Exiles play their first competitive game at AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup on Saturday, 8 August (15:00 BST) and then host Rochdale on Saturday, 15 August (12:30 BST) in their League Two opener.