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Newport County's Padraig Amond battles for the ball with Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko John Stones in the FA Cup. Nick Potts
contract expiry

Carlow's Padraig Amond confirms Newport County exit

He scored several big FA Cup goals for Newport before helping Exeter to League Two promotion this season.

PADRAIG AMOND HAS confirmed he is departing Newport County and expressed his disappointment at how his tenure at the club was brought to an end.

The Carlow native spent this season on loan at Exeter City, helping them secure promotion from League Two – ahead of mid-table Newport. 

Amond joined Newport in 2017 and famously scored FA Cup goals against Manchester City, Leicester, Middlesbrough and Tottenham.

The 34-year-old’s contract expires this summer and he announced his exit from Rodney Parade on Twitter. 

“Thank you to all the Newport County supporters for their support and respect since I signed for the club in August 2017,” he said.

“I loved my four years at the club. Thanks to all my teammates during that time, too.

“Without them we wouldn’t have had the amazing journeys that we went on.

“Finally, thank you to the gaffer Michael Flynn and Wayne Hatswell for signing me and believing in me.”

He joined County from Hartlepool and scored 59 goals in 206 games, finishing as the club’s top scorer in every campaign he played. His form earned a call-up to the Republic of Ireland squad in March 2019.

Speaking on the LOI Central podcast, Amond revealed how Flynn’s successor informed him the club would not be renewing his contract in a brief conversation. 

“This is new for me, the first time in seven years that I’ve been out of contract,” said Amond.

“It’s a cut-throat industry. I signed five seasons ago (for Newport), I played over 200 games for them, scored 60 odd goals and I got released in a 25-second phone call. And 10 to 12 seconds of that was the manager introducing himself to me because of a change of number.

“I live three or four minutes’ away from the (Newport) training ground. I was down in Exeter for the promotion parade, with my Mam, Dad, my wife and son and I was walking to go and meet the bus.

“The phone call happened so quickly they didn’t even know I was on the phone. It doesn’t surprise me. I know what football is like. It does hurt. You can have such an affiliation and spend such a time at a club but it works both ways. You hear players get criticised for showing no loyalty but it works both ways with everyone.”

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