Great escape saved our club, say the Newport cup heroes
THE laughter at Newport’s training ground eventually dies down. A look of embarrassment is still etched on young Shawn McCoulsky’s face.
Seconds earlier McCoulsky, who scored the winner against Leeds to send Newport into the fourth round of the FA Cup, was giving his thoughts about the club’s miraculous escape from relegation last season.
‘I wasn’t here last season to experience the big getaway so...’ the on-loan Bristol City striker isn’t able to get another word in as manager Michael Flynn, David Pipe and Mark O’Brien can’t resist a joke. ‘The what?’ says O’Brien, before Flynn adds: ‘It felt like we robbed a few banks and a few people on the way. Who does that make me? Ronnie Biggs?’
‘The great getaway or the great escape, whatever they call it,’ replies McCoulsky.
‘The great escape — that’s better. Steve McQueen,’ says Flynn, who insists relegation would have put the club out of business.
Flynn, who was born in Newport and first played for the club in the 1990s in the Southern Premier League, took the manager’s job at Rodney Parade last March. Newport were 11 points adrift at the foot of League Two.
‘It was a free shot at something we didn’t think was possible at one point,’ says Flynn.
‘The lucky thing is we had a good group of players who dug in and gave their all every game and as soon as we won the first two it was a lot more believable. When you’re 11 points behind with 12 to play, it’s going to be tough.’
Newport went on to win seven of their remaining fixtures, drawing one and losing four. But it was
a 2-1 win over Notts County in the final game that kept them up. At 1-1, they were going down but O’Brien, a centre half, popped up to score the 89th-minute winner and rescue his team. ‘ It was crazy,’ says O’Brien. ‘A lot of emotion came out when that final whistle went. It was the first and only time I’ve come close to crying due to football.’
Newport are now pushing for the play-offs in League Two and have an FA Cup fourth-round tie against Tottenham this evening.
Not since 1979, when Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive was top of the charts, have Newport gone this far in the competition.
The pitch, which is shared with Newport RFC and Pro14 rugby’s Dragons, was relaid last summer after complaints and postponements due to its poor condition. A very different stage, then, to Wembley and the 62,000- seater stadium Tottenham are building.
‘It’s going to be tough at our place, it’s not what they are used to,’ says Flynn. ‘It’s not a lush playing field with comfy seats in the dressing room. That goes in our favour, let’s not make excuses about that.’