EXILES’ SENSATIONAL SPURS CUP DRAW EARNS WEMBLEY REPLAY
Exiles force a draw with Prem giants
THEY did not dream of this when they made the 170 mile round trips to Moretonin-Marsh. They did not fantasise of FA Cup trips to Wembley when they dug into pockets to save their own club.
And they did not dare wonder of nights like this when they were minutes from relegation from the Football League just a few short months ago.
But equally, Newport County AFC have never been ones to accept their fate without fighting – with the might of Tottenham Hotspur the latest to discover it.
What County did perhaps not deserve is to have been denied a famous, famous win over Spurs with just eight minutes remaining of a pulsating Rodney Parade tie.
For so long, something they would never of dreamed of seemed in their grasps after Padraig Amond’s 38th minute header.
A side who earlier this year beat Real Madrid were about to be knocked out of the FA Cup by a group of players who faced the very real prospect of entering into non-league.
As surreal as it sounds, Spurs needed Harry Kane to stop Newport County. Kane, off colour all evening, poked home at the far post with time ticking down.
Yet still Newport fans could celebrate. The chants of Wembley filled the air, a replay booked under the arch to take on Tottenham at their temporary home.
It will be a day out for the fans, for the city, but so much more than that. The club once exiled and built up from the ashes have never found life straightforward. The finances on offer will again be huge, club-changing.
This cup run might have already done that. This was the biggest County crowd since 1983 and the players delivered a suitably mammoth performance.
It came so close to one of the greatest FA Cup shocks of all time – the side who finished second in the Premier League last year being beaten by the team who finished bottom but three in the Football League.
But it delivered in terms of occasion and could deliver a club a new generation of fans having lost out on so much during those years in exile after the original club’s 1989 demise.
As the side left to noise and applause from all corner, there were fans attending for the first time stood alongside those who made those trips to the Cotswolds when the club were exiled. This could be a new beginning.
Manager Mike Flynn needs to take so much credit, galvanising a city but also getting his tactics spot on when the spotlight was on. The players played their part, rising to the night made for them and so eagerly anticipated by its supporters.
They were never going to let them down, not from the first moments. The buzz had been building all week, the black and amber dressing the city for days and a sense of pride bubbling to new levels as far as the Coun- ty are concerned.
It all carried through the gates where fans, bedecked in club colours and brimming with hope of the impossible took up their spaces on the terraces before the teams had even arrived. They wanted to witness their dreams with an unobstructed view.
As they were joined by those caught in the tide of excitement that flowed to the ground on the banks of the Usk, the temporary stands filling, so the atmosphere built and built.
The roars to greet the warm-ups were to something to behold, let alone when they saw their amber heroes walk out next to the iconic lillywhite shirts of a club so associated with the FA Cup itself.
But this Newport side are associated with refusing to accept the odds, the attitude and intensity to reflect it pouring out from the whistle and into every challenge.
It was supposed to be Newport who would suffer from nerves, who might shrink with the size of the occasion, but instead it was Spurs who were rattled. County hunted in packs, choosing their moments and making them count to win the ball in key areas.
The superb Labadie led by excellent example, overrunning Victor Wanyama, and Frank Nouble should have really buried his centre following such hard work after only four minutes.
The well-travelled striker sent the shot sailing over the bar and into the temporary stands, though the fact Kane did something similar at the other end would have eased Nouble’s worry that it was a moment that would cost his side.
He needed have been concerned. While Joe Day did stop a Kane flick at the near post, Spurs never sliced Newport open as they have done to so many Premier League opponents. They were never allowed to, hassled and hurried at the right moments with County’s discipline a delight.
It gave Tottenham no time, gave their fans increasing belief – and eventually gave them the chance they had been dreaming about.
Ben Tozer’s long throw had caused Tottenham problems – far more than all the talk of the pitch – and eventually it told. The clearance was not good enough, the return cross from Robbie Willmott was and Amond headed home.
Cue bedlam, cue belief of the unbelievable.
But cue Tottenham facing up to the very real prospect of being knocked out. Pochettino was always likely to change things and a different Spurs appeared after the break. More and more County were pushed back and penned in. Heung-Min Son, on at the break, helped them stretch the hosts but as he drove in on 67 minutes, seemingly ready to level, he found Day at full stretch. A remarkable save on a remarkable day.
Bodies tired, concentration began to slide, and though there were only eight minutes remaining, agonisingly close to the final whistle, the resistance faltered. A Ben Davies corner found its way through amber shirts all the way to the far post where Kane lurked and lunged at the ball.
The defiant noise was as if Newport had scored but an already famous tie produced no more twists, no more goals having already produced heroes. Wembley and all that goes with it awaits.
NEWPORT: Day; Pipe, White, Demetriou, Butler; Tozer, Bennett, Labadie (Capt, Dolan 84); Willmott, Nouble, Amond (McCoulsky 74).
SUBS NOT USED: Bittner(gk), Reid, O’Brien, Sheehan, Hayes.
TOTTENHAM: Vorm; Trippier, Vertonghen, Foyth, Walker-Peters (Son 46); Dier, Wanyama, Dembele (Davies 81), Sissoko; Kane (Capt), Llorente (Alli 66). SUBS NOT USED: Gazzaniga (gk), Sanchez, Amos, Georgiou. YELLOW CARDS NEWPORT: Ladabie 32 TOTTENHAM: Foyth 87 REFEREE: Roger East (Wilts) ATTENDANCE: 9,836