NEW ORDER!

County cash in by setting up City date

FROM stacking shelves in Tesco to slapping Middlesbrough out of the FA Cup in the space of 20 months. Fair to say that Robbie Willmott took that old notion about a fading competition and dumped it face first in the mud last night.

What a wonderful performance from him, and what a wonderful performance from them, that rag-tag assortment of cast-offs from Newport who overturned a 56-place deficit in the pyramid to book a home fifth-round tie with Manchester City. Magic.

It is their first trip to that stage since 1949 and how they deserved it. From start to finish they were the better side, helped on their way by Willmott, who opened the scoring at the start of the second half and then got the assist for Pádraig Amond to make it safe.

It was Amond who got the winner against Leicester in the previous round, having almost been lost to football a few years earlier. That hardly makes him unique in this side — they all have a tale. Willmott, at 28, is the journeyman who briefly wound up in a supermarket via Cambridge Regional College, Ebbsfleet and Bishop’s Stortford. Their sub, David Pipe, has served prison time, their goalkeeper, Joe Day, was ordered to come out and play by his manager, Michael Flynn, despite his wife being on the brink of delivering twins.

Even Flynn has a story — he grew up a stone’s throw from Tony Pulis across the river from Rodney Parade in Pil. Now he has thrown him out of the cup. And it couldn’t have been more deserved.

Newport got the lead they warranted after only two minutes. A quick break put Willmott clear and his finish from the edge of the area found the top-right corner, but Boro keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos should have kept it out.

The second goal offered no such opportunity. Willmott sent a corner low to the near post, where it was thundered in by Amond. No faulting the netminder there, no attention diverting anywhere but Newport.