BOTTOM-OF-THE-TABLE York City went down meekly to fellow strugglers Newport County following a 1-0 home defeat.

Teenage striker Aaron Collins’ eighth-minute goal saw the visitors open up a seven-point gap on the troubled Minstermen.

Collins scored from the first shot of the match on eight minutes as he eased his way past ineffective challenges from Kenny McEvoy and Luke Summerfield before driving into Scott Flinders’ bottom-right corner from 20 yards.

Five minutes later, Collins was millimetres away from adding a second when he shrugged off the attentions of last man Summerfield but his dipping edge-of-the-box effort narrowly cleared Flinders’ crossbar.

After Mark Byrne curled a free kick over, Medy Elito then struck Flinders’ left-hand upright from a Danny Holmes cross that had been allowed to travel across the face of the home six-yard box.

City belatedly managed a goal attempt on 20 minutes when James Berrett’s angled attempt floated wide and Dave Winfield went on to have four chances from Berrett corners.

He stabbed the first one well wide, headed the next two narrowly over and rose high for his final first-half effort that was cleared off the line by Scott Boden.

Summerfield also forced a low near-post save from on-loan Chelsea keeper Mitchell Beeney with a curling free kick and Vadaine Oliver headed wide at the far post after Russell Penn had picked out Femi Ilesanmi’s overlapping run down the left.

After Yan Klukowski had missed the target from an acute angle on the restart, Penn lifted an edge-of-the-box effort over and Oliver was denied by a brilliant Beeney save having met Summerfield’s left-wing cross with his head four yards from goal.

At the other end, Collins shot across the face of goal after running through the right channel and Elito’s half-hearted 25-yard effort was comfortable gathered by Flinders.

City mustered little in the closing stages with Michael Coulson’s edge-of-the-box attempt lacking the power to trouble Beeney before the final whistle was greeted with a frustrated boos from the long-suffering Bootham Crescent faithful.