Amond says Newport can turf Pep stars out of Cup
NEWPORT striker Padraig Amond has warned Manchester City’s millionaires to prepare for a pitch battle when they meet in the FA Cup.
League Two Newport reached the fifth round for the first time in 70 years with their latest giant-killing, over Middlesbrough at a sodden Rodney Parade on Tuesday.
The Exiles share their stadium with two rugby union teams and the battered surface has hosted nearly 60 matches already this season.
Amond, who scored the second goal against Boro, warned the muddy, rutted surface could be a great leveller when Pep Guardiola’s side visit a week on Saturday.
“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. I don’t know if there is a rugby game or not – 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 in 2017, and he scored his first goal of the season against Boro.
“Everyone is buzzing about City coming here,” said the winger. “You saw Burton Albion but that was at the Etihad [where they lost 9-0 in the Carabao Cup]. 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 DARNELL FURLONG says facing Premier League Watford in the FA Cup is the next best thing to playing in the top flight for QPR.
Rangers beat Portsmouth on Tuesday to book their place in the fifth round for the first time in 22 years.
And defender Furlong cannot wait to take on the Hornets in the televised clash at Loftus Road a week tomorrow.
Furlong said: “You want to be playing in the Premier League and if you’re not what it is like. My first spell here, they dug six trenches on the pitch and I have seen a goalkeeper fall through a sand trench.
“They lost to Wigan last year and anyone is beatable on their day, like we have shown. We have beaten a Premier League side [Leicester] this season, so there is no reason why we can’t pull off a major shock.”
Only 18 months ago, the 28-year-old was starting his supermarket shift at 6am and training twice a week after being released by Newport in 2015.
Willmott played for Ebbsfleet, Eastleigh and then Chelmsford City before rejoining the Exiles. “Everyone knows how much this club means to me,” he said.
“There have been some highs and lows and I could never have imagined 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 playing in the Premier League, then you want to be playing a Premier League team. This gives us an opportunity to do. It’s going to be an exciting evening.”
Meanwhile, owner Tony Fernandes is threatening to move the club out of the borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.
He feels the council are not helping Rangers in their three-year search for a new stadium. The London club have 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.
“When I dropped out, I just thought this is probably going to be me now, I will just play part-time and work and probably look back when I finish and think I have wasted my career.
“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. That was it.
“The turning point was probably training twice a week for me. 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.”