Newport County's hopes of staying in the football league are hanging by a thread after they lost away to Cheltenham Town with just two games to go.

Relegation rivals Barrow had handed the Welsh side an opportunity to pull away from the bottom two when they lost 3-1 to Walsall in the lunchtime kick-off.

But despite Newport twice hitting the bar through Matt Baker and Harrison Biggins, it was the home side who took all three points.

Cheltenham's Mo Faal, on loan from Wrexham, produced a moment of magic to create the time and space for George Miller to score the only goal in the 82nd minute

The Robins, who are already safe from the drop, are up to 17th while the Exiles remain just one point ahead of Barrow at the bottom of League Two.

Newport boss Christian Fuchs made one change to the side that beat Harrogate Town as match-winner Joe Thomas was replaced by Liam Shephard.

Fuchs had called on his squad to put early pressure on Cheltenham and the message was clearly received as midfielder Sven Sprangler adopted a shoot-on-site approach, putting two chances wide in the opening seven minutes.

The early exchanges prompted Cheltenham manager Steve Cotterill to reach for his notepad, furiously scribbling down some instructions for half-time but he did not have to wait that long to see a response.

In the 13th minute the ball fell to Josh Davison on the six-yard line and his shot from point-blank range produced an excellent instinctive save from Newport keeper Jordan Wright.

Cheltenham started to impose themselves on the game and Harry Ashfield missed a sitter in the 33rd minute when he put his header wide of the far post from Luke Young's cross.

In the 40th minute, Town's Robbie Cundy was forced off with an injury and the break in play halted Cheltenham's momentum.

As the interval approached, Newport captain Baker rose above the defence to head Biggins' free-kick past Cheltenham stopper Joe Day, only to see the ball rebound off the crossbar.

From the resulting corner, Exiles striker James Crole punted the ball goalwards but could not thread it through the home side's scrambling defenders.

Cotterill made three substitutions, one at half-time and two more on the 57th minute, as he looked to wrestle back control of the match, but it was Newport who once again hit the crossbar - this time through a left-foot shot from Biggins.

Then a moment of skill from Cheltenham's Faal led to the only goal.

His first touch created the space to flick the ball inside to Miller in the penalty area, who made no mistake in finding the bottom right-hand corner of the Newport goal with only eight minutes of normal time left.

That is how it stayed until the final whistle, leaving the Amber army thinking of what could have been as they make their way back down the M5.

With just two games to go in the season, Newport will return to Rodney Parade to face Oldham Athletic next Saturday (15:00 BST).

Cheltenham still have three games to play which means they have three days to prepare to face Tranmere Rovers, at home again, on Tuesday night (19:45 BST).

Newport County manager Christian Fuchs:

"Obviously disappointing, I think we definitely deserved way more from the game than we got at the end.

"It was more of a mistake where we were not really in our shape, in our defensive structure, and that was costly, especially at a very bad moment of the game as well towards the end of the game.

But what I've seen from my team is that they are very much alive and create a lot of chances. It's just the ruthlessness before the goal that let us down."