Misfits head to Wembley as Spurs survive
THEY hung on and they hung on, men who had given everything, men who had played as if they had iron in their bones and molten steel running through their veins. They hung on to their lead because they knew this was their shot, this was their 90 minutes, their redemption and their moment. This was their glimpse of immortality.
One-nil since seven minutes before half-time against the mighty Spurs, 1-0 up against Harry Kane, who might cost Real Madrid £200million this summer, 1-0 up against Mauricio Pochettino and Dele Alli and Eric Dier, 1-0 up against the first Premier League team who has ever ventured across the Severn Bridge down here to the banks of the River Usk.
They are a team of misfits, this Newport side, lads who have never quite been able to make it big but last night they conjured something primeval out of the dank South Wales evening. They came so close, so close. Eight minutes stood between them and one of the greatest of FA Cup upsets. And then Kane stepped in.
But still they have a replay to look forward to now. Another stack of money in their coffers. Another chance to be heroes.
What a night this was. A night that ranks alongside anything that has happened here in the past, even the time in 1981 when Newport played Carl Zeiss Jena in the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup at their old ground, Somerton Park. That was before the fall, of course. That was before their world fell apart and they went out of business. Next year, it will be 30 years since Newport County went bust with debts of £330,000.
They were expelled from the Conference for failing to fulfil their fixtures and exiled from Somerton Park, which stood a couple of miles from Rodney Parade but was demolished and turned into a housing estate.
It was a long way back. The club reformed and played its first season in the Hellenic League, four divisions below the Football League. They played in the Gloucestershire town of Moreton-in-Marsh at first and then at Gloucester City’s Meadow Park ground before they moved back to Newport in the mid-1990s. In 2013, they finally regained the Football League status they had lost 25 years earlier.
And all of it led to a night like this. A night when a group of lads, some of whom live together in a terraced house across the road from the ground, took on Tottenham and came within eight minutes of a beautiful upset.
They should have gone ahead in the fourth minute. As the home team hassled and harried and pressed, Kyle Walker-Peters played Dier into trouble on the edge of his own area. Dier took a heavy touch and was dispossessed by Newport skipper Joss Labadie.
He chased the loose ball towards the byline and pulled it
back across goal towards Frank Nouble, who met it 15 yards out. The goal was at his mercy but he hit it high over the bar.
But Newport were relentless. They refused to let Spurs settle. Scot Bennett ran on to a flick-on and hooked a shot just wide. A drive from Labadie stung the hands of Michel Vorm. A curling free-kick from Robbie Willmott just eluded Padraig Amond and was gathered by Vorm.
Seven minutes before halftime, Spurs failed to deal with a long throw by Ben Tozer and it fell to Willmott. He curled a cross to the back post and Amond rose to direct his header down and past Vorm.
After the break, though, some of the energy seemed to have drained out of Newport.
They were given a let-off when Kieran Trippier curled in a cross which presented Kane with a golden opportunity to level, but his header looped up on to the roof of the net.
When Son Heung-min drilled a shot towards the corner it looked a goal but Joe Day stuck out his left leg and diverted it over the bar superbly.
But with eight minutes to go, Newport’s resistance finally crumbled. Spurs forced a corner, Son flicked it on at the near post and Kane was waiting at the back post to prod the ball home. The crowd was silent.
One dream was over but another is about to begin. For the misfits, Wembley beckons.