Leeds dumped... and it’s just what they deserve
ON DAYS like this the grand old Cup is still alive and kicking. You want romance? It would make the average Mills and Boon novel look cold-hearted.
Forget the shame around Leeds midfielder Samu Saiz being sent off for spitting, or that his boss Thomas Christiansen thought it would be a doddle and picked a team who couldn’t cope.
This was an afternoon about a small club that nearly went out of the League and out of business last season and its local hero Michael Flynn, a determined young manager with his heart in the club, and how they can all now dream of riches.
Flynn will watch tonight’s fourthround draw praying for a trip to Anfield, not just because he is a Liverpool fan but because the cash could pay for the new training ground he wants to create.
‘This is why the Cup, for me, and especially now I am a manager, is still by far the most special competition in world football,’ he said. ‘I understand that for the bigger clubs it isn’t as important as the Champions League or the Premier League, especially for managers who are under pressure from their chairmen because of the money.
‘But this is still huge for the smaller clubs. It gives everybody a chance to dream.’
Substitute Shawn McCoulsky’s 89th-minute winner was the stuff of comic-book stories, as the boy on loan from Bristol City soared above the Leeds defence to head home Robbie Willmott’s corner. (Willmott, incidentally, was helping stack shelves in Tesco last summer before being given a second chance to play for the club that had released him two years earlier.)
The tiny Rodney Parade ground, rented from the rugby club and filled to capacity for the first time since the final day-win over Notts County last May that saved Newport’s League status, was filled with noise and celebration.
Leeds had led from the ninth minute when Gaetano Berardi’s 30-yard shot took a huge deflection off team-mate Pierre-Michel Lasogga to leave home goalkeeper Joe Day stranded.
Unusually for a centre forward, Lasogga did not try to claim the goal, simply sharing the celebrations for 5ft 8in defender Berardi who had played 101 games without scoring. It looked like the Swiss former Sampdoria player might be the day’s hero.
Newport, however, had different ideas. Leeds boss Christiansen tried to justify his nine changes afterwards by asking what was different to when he rotated his team to get a Carabao Cup win against Burnley and also to give Leicester a tough time.
Simple answer. They were Premier League clubs who were not bothered either about a cup game, but Newport were. Slowly they fought their way back into the game, and would have been level before half-time if Mateusz Klich had not cleared Padraig Amond’s shot off the line. Captain Joss Labadie also volleyed over from a few yards.
But one-time West Ham wonder kid Frank Nouble made a telling contribution. He took Mickey Demetriou’s crossfield ball in his stride and sent in a low cross which was destined for McCoulsky to score, before Shaughnessy stabbed it into his own net.
Leeds, with an average age of 23 did not have the know-how to cope and McCoulsky’s leap completed the story. As the celebrations subsided, Willmott could be seen protesting to referee Mike Dean, who then sent off Leeds sub Samu Saiz, later confirming it was for spitting at an opponent.
That story will rumble on but don’t let it spoil the romance.