LET’S MAKE UNITED LOOK LIKE PLONKERS AT RODNEY PARADE
GREAT escape survivor Scot Bennett hopes Manchester United will rock up at Rodney Parade and turn their noses up at the portaloos and temporary stands.
The Newport defender is last man standing from the
Exiles side who cheated relegation out of the Football League by a whisker seven years ago and sent Soccer Saturday legend Jeff Stelling into mourning in the Sky Sports studio.
Ahead of United’s FA Cup fourth-round booby-trap in south Wales on Sunday, Bennett warned:
“I still believe in miracles.”
As a culture shock, Rodney Parade (above) will seem like a parallel universe for Erik ten Hag’s aristocrats.
With United 11 points off the top four and out of Europe, the FA Cup is their only hope of silverware this season.
And Bennett, 33, is relishing the Red Devils’ discomfort, saying: “It’s a massive underdog story when a team like Newport goes up against one of the biggest teams in the world.
“I know they have had a bit of a hard time recently but we know how tough it’s going to be.
“I believe in miracles because I’ve been here when we stayed up in the League on the last day of the season with time running out, we beat Leicester when they were in the Premier League and we came within minutes of beating Tottenham.
“The history of the FA Cup shows miracles can happen – we will need a lot of stars to align on the day, but there’s always a chance of an upset. If they come here, pull up next to the portable toilets and the temporary stands, and wonder what they are doing in a place like this, you’ll know straight away that we’re into them already.”
Bennett (below) has become an Exiles favourite since their dramatic escape from obscurity in 2017, when they needed to match Hartlepool’s result on the last day of term to stay in the 92-club mainstream.
With Monkey Hanger Stelling wearing his Pools shirt on air, Newport cut it fine. Bennett said: “I remember it well – we were winning 1-0, Hartlepool were losing 1-0 and everything seemed to be going according to plan.
“But then the afternoon seemed to turn on its head. Out of nowhere, Devante Rodney scored twice to put Hartlepool in front, Notts County had equalised here and, suddenly, we had only 10 minutes to find a winner to save our skins.
“Fortunately, Mark O’brien chose a good moment to score his first-ever League goal, which kept us up, although the seven minutes of stoppage time afterwards were the longest of my life.
“When the celebrations had died down, and I caught up with footage of Jeff Stelling going from ecstasy to agony in the Sky Sports studio, I almost felt sorry for him… almost.
“But he was wearing his Hartlepool shirt and, I’m sorry Jeff, but we didn’t want to go down at your expense.”