Better get ready for a mud wrestle, Pep
NEWPORT striker Padraig Amond has warned Pep Guardiola’s millionaires to prepare for a pitch battle in the next round of the FA Cup.
The League Two side reached the fifth round for the first time in 70 years with their latest giant-killing over Middlesbrough at sodden Rodney Parade.
The Exiles share the stadium with two rugby union teams – Pro14 side Dragons and the Welsh Premiership’s Newport RFC – and the battered surface has hosted nearly 60 matches already this season.
And Amond, who scored the second goal against Boro, warned the mud and ruts could be a great leveller with 81 places and millions of pounds separating the two sides.
“Will City fancy this pitch? I don’t think so,” said the Irishman. “They have some of the best players in the world but it is going to be tough for them because this isn’t what they are used to. They won’t be used to the facilities.
“We have to use all the advantages we can get. The bobbly pitch – we have to use that. There are three football matches on this pitch beforehand. We might get a rugby game on there beforehand just to make it really interesting!
“There would have been very few City players if any who would have played at a ground like this. That is the little advantage we have to take.
“If the game were in the Eithad then we would be thinking a different story.”
Robbie Willmott was stacking shelves in
a supermarket before re-signing for Newport, and he scored his first goal of the season against Boro.
“Everyone is buzzing about City coming here,” said the winger. “You saw what they did to Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup semi-final but that was at the Etihad.
“Coming to Rodney Parade is a completely different task. You are not going to be able to play free-flowing football on that – they are going to have to change their game.
“We know what it is like. In my first spell here, they dug six trenches on the pitch and I have seen a goalkeeper fall through a sand trench.
“City lost to Wigan last year and anyone is beatable on their day, like we have shown. We have beaten Leicester this season so there is no reason why we can’t pull off a major shock.”
Only 18 months ago Willmott, 28, was starting his supermarket shift at 6am and training twice a week after being released by
Newport in 2015.
He played for Ebbsfleet, Eastleigh, then Chelmsford City before rejoining the Exiles in 2017.
“Everyone knows how much this club means to me,” said Willmott, who joined the fans in celebration after the game.
“I have a special bond with the supporters and I just wanted to enjoy it with them and enjoy the occasion. There have been some highs and lows and I could never have imagined a night like this in my wildest dreams.
“I took a lot of things for granted before, like most pros do. You think you are going to carry on getting contracts and contracts. A different regime came in at Newport and the budget was cut and unfortunately I was cut as well.
“I thought I had wasted my career. A lot of people have said to me I could play higher and for different reasons, I just haven’t.
“I was starting work at six in the morning till one or two, and then go home, do an hour in the gym and that was my day.
“The turning point was probably training twice a week. It is the same every day as a pro.
“`But two nights a week I was buzzing for football. I couldn’t wait to get there and play on a Saturday.
“And I knew I only had those days to impress. I managed to do that and get a few offers on the table in the summer, but this was going to be the only club I came back for. “I couldn’t ever have imagined this night would ever happen. Even last season.
“Last season was special but this season has topped it.”