Robbie Stockdale was relieved to see his Rochdale side finally land a result to match their performance as they ran out 3-0 winners against Newport at the Crown Oil Arena.

Jake Beesley’s brace and Liam Kelly’s late strike secured a first win in seven League Two matches for Dale.

“We’ve been threatening that kind of result for a while – I don’t think our results have always reflected how we’ve played so it was pleasing to score the three goals and get a clean sheet,” said Stockdale.

“It was the clean sheet that won it for us because at 1-0 if they score it becomes a nervous place and I felt every player contributed.

“In terms of the goals against column we haven’t been happy with it so we’d done some work on our shape and getting bodies behind the ball then being aggressive with what we do on the back of that. Overall we deserved the win, scored some really good goals and probably should have scored a couple more.”

One of only four League Two games played on Saturday due to the outbreak of the Omicron Covid-19 variant, Stockdale called for clarity from the football authorities.

“I think there has to be some kind of clarity with it, in terms of if the Premier League is shut down I think everyone should,” he said.

“There has to be a bit of guidance with regards to fixtures going forward. We’ve not been affected so far, fortunately, but at some point we probably will be.

“Health and safety of everyone comes first and if that means we stop and have a circuit break, so be it, if we carry on and it’s deemed safe, great.”

The in-form Beesley fired Dale ahead two minutes in and converted a 70th-minute penalty after Corey O’Keeffe was fouled by Mickey Demetriou.

Beesley then teed up Kelly to slot home the third in the 89th minute.

Newport boss James Rowberry was incensed by the penalty decision and the fact referee Carl Boyeson refused to discuss the matter after the game as he left the field of play.

“I felt we got done a little bit in the central areas in the opening 20 minutes which was disappointing – we changed the shape and rectified it a little bit but ultimately we didn’t defend well enough as a team, that’s what cost us the game,” he said.

“I felt we were in control until penalty – which was disappointing on two counts because Mickey Demetriou gets bowled over in the corner then gets the ball for the penalty.

“I have to be very careful what I say – we’re not allowed to speak to the referee but I was just trying to understand why he gave the penalty and he wouldn’t give me an answer and kept walking away and got security over for some reason I don’t understand.”