County concentrating on matters in league ahead of Foxes clash
NEWPORT County AFC striker Padraig Amond says the squad will put their glamour FA Cup tie with Leicester City to the back of their minds after clinching a place in the third round with Tuesday’s 4-0 win over Wrexham.
Amond hit Newport’s opening goal as they took control following Luke Young’s 12th-minute red card, strikes from Jamille Matt, Dan Butler and a Mark Carrington own goal adding to their tally.
County will now face the 201516 Premier League champions at Rodney Parade in a televised game on Sunday, January 6, as they look to repeat last season’s heroics when they beat Leeds and took Tottenham to a replay.
But the 30-year-old front man says thought of taking on Jamie Vardy, Harry Maguire, Kasper Schmeichel and Co. will have to wait as County have League Two matters to deal with.
They have five games over the festive period before their clash with Claude Puel’s Foxes, starting with leaders MK Dons at home on Saturday.
“It’s exciting times for the club, but it’s right at the back of our minds,” said the Irish striker, who took his goal tally to 12 for the season against Wrexham.
“We’re completely focused on MK Dons at the weekend and the Christmas period that’s ahead of us. It’s a busy period for us.”
“We’ll look forward to the Leicester game after whenever the last league game before it is (Stevenage on January 1).”
Exiles boss Mike Flynn was delighted at the professional attitude shown by his players after Young’s red card for a foul on Mickey Demetriou.
“I’m not sure if it was a red card, if I’m honest,” said Flynn.
“I thought it was a full-blooded challenge, but we’ve had that against us this season.
“After that I thought we were a little bit slow in our build-up. We took too many touches, we overhit crosses and passes and tried to force the issue.
“We just wanted to get into halftime and bide our time.
“We knew that if we improved the quality in the wide areas, we’d cause them problems. And that’s exactly what we did.
“I can’t praise the players enough – they’ve made the club a lot of money, which is huge for us.
“They’ve done a very professional job and I’m very proud of them.”
Flynn also praised the visitors for a spirited display.
“Wrexham are a good team and I think they’ll go very close to promotion this season,” he added.
“It was damage limitation for them in the end, but I think they deserve a bit of credit as well because they were the better team in the first match.”
Wrexham’s interim boss Graham Barrow questioned whether Young deserved his red card from Somerset referee Kevin Johnson.
“It was so quick. The red was out instantly,” he said.
“We said we wanted to take the game step by step, but we didn’t expect that to happen.
“My interpretation was that he got the ball first. That was key.
“We all know the lad hasn’t got that malice in him to make a bad challenge.
“It never occurred to me [that it might be a red card].
“In fairness we got to half time at 0-0 and when you are in that situation it does give you hope to pinch a result.
“We paid the price for playing the game with 10 men for too long.”