CARLOW-BORN STRIKER Padraig Amond was the hero for Newport County on Sunday afternoon, as the League Two outfit stunned Leicester City in the third round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win.
It had seemed that visitors Leicester, seventh in the Premier League and top-flight champions in 2016, would leave Rodney Parade with a draw when Rachid Ghezzal’s shot eight minutes from time cancelled out Jamille Matt’s 10th-minute header.
But, with five minutes left, Newport were awarded a penalty after Leicester’s Marc Albrighton inexplicably raised his arm to block a cross into the box and 30-year-old Amond made no mistake from the spot to spark delirious scenes among the Welsh club’s supporters.
“It’s a little bit surreal at the moment,” Matt told the BBC after Newport’s first FA Cup win against a top-tier club since they beat Sheffield Wednesday in the third round back in the 1963/64 season.
“We all fight for each other and we deserved it. We knew that to get a good result we’d have to be on it one to 11 and today we were.
“I’m absolutely buzzing for the fans. Absolutely buzzing.”
🔥 | It's heating up at Rodney Parade as @NewportCounty regain the lead pic.twitter.com/BFoEZ5a1Wo
— The Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) January 6, 2019
Leicester manager Claude Puel praised Newport by saying: “The first thing is congratulations, well done to this team. They believed in themselves and created the upset.
“Of course it is a big disappointment for us. We thought we did the most difficult thing to come back (with the equaliser) and then conceded a penalty.”
The Frenchman added: “I think we had an experienced team to manage this game. We had eight players who won the title. We had lot of experience and a good team on the pitch.
“We didn’t have enough (of a) clinical edge and it is a big disappointment because this competition was an objective for us.”
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