Labadie hopes it can be third time lucky for him at Wembley

JOSS Labadie is one of half-a -dozen Newport County players who are hoping it will be third time lucky at Wembley in Monday’s League Two play-off final against Morecambe.

The County captain, who was one of the goalscorers in the incredible 5-4 aggregate win over Forest Green Rovers that saw his side reach the final, has twice tasted heartache on the most hallowed turf in English football.

Firstly, it was the 2-0 FA Cup replay defeat against Premier League Tottenham Hotspur in February 2018, and then the agonising extra-time play-off final defeat to Tranmere in May, 2019. Joining him in hoping for better fortunes next week will be Mickey Demetriou, Scot Bennett, Matty Dolan, Josh Sheehan and Padraig Amond.

At least Amond can point to a Wembley win with Grimsby in the National Conference final in 2016, while Dolan was a second-half substitute in the 2013 League One play-off final when Yeovil beat Brentford to reach the Championship.

“It will be my third time to Wembley in four years, so I’m going to go there, approach it like I would any other game and look to get Newport into League One,” said Labadie.

“We’ve got to regroup now. We had a day off after the win at Forest Green, but it was back to work as normal after that because we need to be on it from now right through to May 31.

“These are exciting times for everyone. Morecambe are there on merit, just as we are, and I’m sure it will be a really good game for the neutral.”

Labadie recovered from the leg injury he picked up when a stud pierced his thigh at Southend to come on at the start of the second half at The New Lawn.

By then County had lost their two-goal lead in the tie and things got even worse when it became 3-0.

But Michael Flynn’s ‘super-subs’ found a way to claw their side back into the tie, with Kevin Ellison and Nicky Maynard both scoring either side of Labadie’s sixth goal of the season.

“We don’t make things easy for ourselves. The tie should have been out of sight in the first leg, but they gave us a great game and, after they went 2-0 up, I was thinking ‘oh no,” admitted Labadie.

“But fair play to the boys, they stuck in there and we managed to get the result to take us through. It wasn’t a great start, but we’ve seen in previous play-off games this season that you’ve just got to hang on in there until the end and anything can happen.

“Thankfully, luck was on our side at the end. All the boys are buzzing and we’ve got a bit of momentum now going into the final.”