WYCOMBE WANDERERS were indebted to Paris Cowan-Hall’s moment of magic- or good fortune- as Gareth Ainsworth’s men came from behind to League Two strugglers Newport County 2-1 at a freezing Adams Park.

Substitute Cowan-Hall scored the decisive goal on 78 minutes when he picked the ball up 35 yards out and saw his looping, lobbed effort swirl over goalkeeper Joe Day.

It wasn’t looking rosy for Wycombe on the hour mark when Mark Randall gave the visitors the lead against the run of play when he took advantage of Aaron Pierre’s dawdling on the ball and he calmly slotted past Scott Brown.

However, the tireless Sam Wood struck with a superb, improvised volley 10 minutes later after Joe Jacobson’s set-piece was only partially cleared.

Newport were thankful to Day at 0-0 as he made a series of fine saves to deny Wanderers, who were looking to record their seventh league win in eight games.

Wycombe made four changes from the team that had beaten Cheltenham on Friday night. Wood, Garry Thompson, Paul Hayes and Myles Weston came in for Matt Bloomfield, Paris Cowan-Hall, Adebayo Akinfenwa and Scott Kashket, with the latter two nursing slight knocks.

The Chairboys had the first chance of the game on four minutes. The returning Hayes turned the ball over the bar from 10 yards after Newport had failed to clear Jacobson’s free kick.

Wycombe had certainly started the brighter and Thompson had a thumping shot blocked on eight minutes from inside the area after Brown’s long kick caused a bit of panic in the County rearguard.

Another half-chance fell to Wanderers inside the first 15 minutes when Wood toe poked straight at Day after a good flick-on by Thompson.

On 32 minutes, the home side had by far and away the best chance of the game when Aaron Pierre’s flick-on eluded everyone. The ball found its way to Wood but his firm strike was saved superbly by Day.

The home side had another excellent chance to take the lead six minutes later when Luke O’Nien found Hayes, who saw his shot tipped wide by Day.

On the stroke of half-time, Wood hit a speculative effort wide of the target after Day had punched Jacobson’s floated free kick away.

Wanderers got the second half underway. The home side began the quicker again and on 50 minutes, Jacobson’s corner was met by Pierre who could only head straight at Day.

Wood was in the thick of the action in the first half and he had another strike at the Newport goal, which was easily saved by Day.

All Wycombe were missing was a goal and Day was called into action again on 57 minutes when Hayes’ daisycutter was stopped at the near post.

Gareth Ainsworth’s men continued to probe at the Welsh side’s defence and Jacobson found Wood two minutes later with a terrific pass but he could only head wide.

However, Newport took the lead completely against the run of play when Randall took advantage of some lax defending to stroke the ball home.

The goal sparked the Chairboys into life and there were shouts for handball when Weston got his way into the area and the ball was blocked by Jones but referee Lee Collins awarded a corner.

Jacobson then took the set-piece and Pierre’s flying header was blocked out to O’Nien, who saw his shot go over.

The goal forced Ainsworth into making a triple substitution with the in-form Kashket, Akinfenwa and Cowan-Hall replacing, Weston, Hayes and Thompson.

The change paid immediate dividends as the excellent Wood struck with a terrific effort past Day with 20 minutes to go.

Wycombe were now chomping at the bit to try and get maximum points and we rewarded when Cowan-Hall struck the deserved winner 12 minutes from time to ensure Wycombe had the perfect start to 2017.

Next up for Wycombe is Stourbridge Rovers in the FA Cup third round on Saturday at Adams Park and Ainsworth and his players will be dreaming of further success in a competition they have done well in recently.

WYCOMBE WANDERERS: Brown, Jombati, Stewart, Pierre, Jacobson, Gape, O’Nien, Wood, Thompson (sub, Cowan-Hall, 69), Weston (sub: Kashket, 69), Hayes (sub: Akinfenwa, 69). Subs: Richardson, Bean, Bloomfield, De Havilland.

NEWPORT COUNTY: Day, Bignot, Jones, Meite, Randall, Sheehan, Barnum-Bobb, Rigg (sub: Owen-Evans, 62), Healey, Williams, Myrie-Williams. Subs: Bittner, Butler, Compton, Jackson, Jebb, O’Hanlon.

REFEREE: Lee Collins