IT’S FA CUP WEEKEND
..and minnows Irish star Padraig has everything crossed
PADRAIG AMOND will be pulling out all his lucky charms and praying for divine intervention as Newport County welcome mighty Manchester City tonight.
The prolific striker has scored in every round of the FA Cup to help the Welsh minnows secure a dream tie against Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions.
Michael Flynn’s men have beaten Leicester and Middlesbrough at Rodney Parade after holding Tottenham to a draw last season.
But Amond says they will need an extra slice of good fortune if they are to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the competition.
“Miracles do happen and we just have to pray that another one comes our way on Saturday night. I’ll be bathing in holy water and drinking it too,” said Amond.
“I’ll be getting shamrocks, four-leaf clovers and anything I can get my hands on to bring us luck because we’ll need it. Wigan knocked them out a couple of years ago so every now and again there are big shocks.
“But if we win this one it would be the biggest shock in the history of the cup.
“The gulf between the teams is huge, it’s even bigger than David versus Goliath. We’re going to go out there and put in a performance we can be proud of.
“We have to go out there and break the game down into little bits and keep it 0-0 for as long as possible and catch them in some way, shape or form – even if we have to dog it out for 120 minutes and take it to penalties.”
Amond will have plenty of friends and family from his hometown, Carlow, over to Rodney Parade after his goalscoring exploits hit the headlines across the Irish Sea.
His face has been plastered on the back pages across the world for the second successive season. And he says it is no fluke that he’s been the man getting the big goals to put Newport County on the map.
“The reaction in Ireland has been unbelievable. I’ve been speaking to all the media out there, it’s becoming an annual thing every January and February when we’re doing well in the FA Cup,’’ added Amond. “My dad got a message from a friend in Berlin who was reading a newspaper, and my picture was on the back page and there was also one in China.
“The goals I’ve scored against the bigger sides are not just one-offs.
“I’m a striker who gets in good positions in the box and if a team creates chances I will score more gaols than I miss.
“I know I can play at a higher level and the manager has said I should have during my career, and it really annoys me I haven’t.”
Manager Michael Flynn has also seen his stock rapidly rise since gaining his coaching badges alongside Manchester City assistant manager Mikel Arteta. And he is relishing a reunion with the man he leaned on for inspiration before he masterminded Newport’s great escape from danger and magical FA Cup runs.
“He’s a very good coach as well as a very good human being,” said Flynn. “You could see he oozes class, I’m looking forward to seeing him because I have a little bit of a friendship.
“We had a fantastic group of people on that course with Mikel and Thierry Henry.
“We were very lucky because everybody on the course brought something different to the table.”