‘Newport completely and utterly ran over us’
Tony Pulis was left fuming after his Middlesbrough side were humiliated by Newport County and dumped out of the FA Cup.
Newport set up an FA Cup money-spinner against Manchester City by defeating Boro 2-0 in their fourth-round replay.
Robbie Willmott and former Hartlepool United striker Padraig Amond were the heroes as Sky Bet League Two minnows County – the lowest-ranked side in the last 16 – bridged a gap of 57 places between them and Championship side Middlesbrough on the league ladder.
Boro were second best in every department at Rodney Parade, with heavy rain making difficult conditions for both teams.
Pulis said: “The whole occasion, in the first half they completely and utterly ran over us.
“They dominated the game in every aspect. They scored a good goal, deserved to be winning.
“We were disappointed with the goal from the corner, one of our players switched off, they did that at our place so we knew about it. Unfortunately our lad switched off.
“It was bad night really but I don’t want to take anything away from Newport.
“We’ve got the best away record in the Championship. The majority of away games we’ve been very good. It was a different challenge, different conditions and we didn’t cope with it.
“I came here to be strong, to give us a chance, play with two up front but it just wasn’t to be, They were better than us.
“It’s a great result for Newport, for the town, for everybody else.
“I’m not concerned about whetherwewanteditenough. Newport were better than us.
“You can make excuses, I can sit here all day and talk about the delay, the pitch, the rain, the wind. They get paid good money to play a game of football.
“If we’d been a bit milky away from home and lost a lot of games, I’d be coming and thinking what’s going to happen but they haven’t done that. Out of all the teams in the Championship, the team at the top for gaining points is our side.
“As much as I’m disappointed, you can’t criticise the team too much in respect of what they’ve done away from home.”