LAMELA ON TARGET AS BRAVE COUNTY’S CUP RUN ENDS
IT seems you can go out of the FA Cup without losing.
Even when the strains of ‘Glory, Glory’ played out over the Wembley PA as the Spurs marched on into the fifth round, Newport County had won.
Beaten 2-0 on the night, unable to stop Spurs’ attacking power, but still winners.
How could they be anything but? Certainly that was the message that came through from the Newport corner of this grand stadium as they drowned out the tannoy with tributes to a club that won even in defeat.
Cynics – and there are many of them – will point to the be-all and end-all of football being to win the match in front of you. Predictably, understandably, Newport could not do that as an unfortunate Dan Butler own goal and an Erik Lamela second completed Tottenham’s job inside the first 45 minutes.
But that’s to ignore too much. Aside from the financial rewards of this run which made County winners before kick-off – the earnings believed to be in the region of £700,000 for a club that brings in around £2m a year – there is the intangible.
Such as the pride Mike Flynn and his men have put back into the club. Yes, outside of south Wales, there might not be many who remember what Newport did – and almost did – to Tottenham at Rodney Parade and how they gave everything to make them work for progress at the second attempt.
But forget those who scoff. What it has mattered most to – and the noise levels throughout this game told you as much – is those who felt a part of this, felt a pride in this.
Newport County and its city perhaps haven’t always been able to say that.
But here they sang it, even in defeat. Such things are worth savouring, even when you don’t win.
Of course, the realist in Flynn would have known full well that a second attempt to shock Tottenham would be one too many. The winner in him – the characteristic that has helped transform this team in less than a year under his stewardship – would not have fully accepted it.
It’s why you saw County almost carry on where they left off from the first game in terms of attitude, refusing to back down and taking on Tottenham as if they were equals rather than separated by 73 clubs in the pyramid and millions in the bank account.
They continued to close down, they continued to have hope, they continued to be fuelled by the noise of an unrelentingly vocal Amber Army.
If the Tottenham livery and the scores of empty seats in the Spurs end reminded that Wembley was not hosting a cup final, the reaction to every half-counter or successful tackle from the Newport end told you they were still treating it like one.
It encouraged, and every passing minute offered up more illogical hope of the impossible, especially when Padraig Amond headed over from a Robbie Willmott cross that teased there were avenues to attack Spurs.
Yet something else had continued from that first game. Manager Flynn remarked after the 1-1 draw how relieved he was that Heung-Min Son had not started in south Wales and pointed to the difference he made when he appeared off the bench.
The South Korean started here – the only survivor from the side that drew with Liverpool at the weekend – and set the tone for Tottenham in terms of breaking lines and drawing defenders.
Newport had scrambled, but would require fortune, something that alluded them when Son’s 26thminute run played off Fernando Llorente to Moussa Sissoko whose shot beat Joe Day via an obvious deflection; Butler had done it.
Immediately, the outlook changed. With Joss Labadie unable to put the same pressure on a Tottenham midfield on this vast, lush surface compared to his immaculate pressing job at the compact, rugged Rodney Parade, Tottenham offered up no spilled balls.
Newport had to bide time for lungbusting counters, but they took their toll. As did the Tottenham pressure, Son again the chief tormentor as he drove towards goal and teed up Lamela for a 34th-minute second.
Newport did not lose their heads nor their heart.
Labadie was only denied meeting Frank Nouble’s powerful counter by a timely intervention from Victor Wanyama. Of course, Tottenham came again and again, Day having to make saves and a defence holding firm in the main.
There was even bravery to throw third-round hero Shaun McCoulsky into the fray for full-back David Pipe.
It couldn’t create that one last question. Tottenham should have made it three, Llorente missing two good chances and substitute Dele Alli hitting the crossbar when through on goal before Michel Vorm cruelly denied Amond a deserved injury-time consolation to celebrate. But still the Newport fans sang. And why not. For this club and those fans, these are the days worth singing about. Long may the County chorus continue. Tottenham: Vorm (capt); Aurier, Foyth, Alderweireld, Rose (Walker-Peters, 86); Wanyama (Alli, 78), Winks; Son (Eriksen, 62), Lamela, Sissoko; Llorente. Subs Not Used: Gazzaniga (gk), Trippier, Sanchez, Kane. Newport: Day; Pipe (McCoulsky, 67), White (O’Brien, 77), Demetriou, Butler; Labadie (capt), Tozer (Dolan, 59), Bennett; Willmott, Amond, Nouble. Subs Not Used: Bittner (gk), Reid, Sheehan, Hayes.