by It has been a bumpy, inexplicable outing for Erik ten Hag and long after the Manchester United manager discussed further questions about Marcus Rashford’s apparent indiscipline. Rashford was conspicuous by his absence, not in the United squad that flew into Cardiff as, Ten Hag said, an internal matter, days after the forward was sick for training, hours after allegedly pictured in a night club in Belfast.
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On the pitch, a United side assembled at a cost of more than £400m survived an almighty scare at challenging Newport County, a team 76 places below them in the pyramid made up mostly of waifs and strays.
Newport trailed 2-0 inside 13 minutes, Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo putting in killer finishes to almost identical moves, but Newport surged forward to ensure a thrilling encounter. Until Bryn Morris’ long-range strike was deflected off Lisandro Martínez on 36 minutes, it looked like this tie would be an anticlimax, after all. Newport proved anything but.
The last time they came from two goals down to take something? On Boxing Day, the only thing was against a club facing relegation to the non-league, Forest Green Rovers, arguably the most famous club in the world, 12-time winners of this competition. Newport manager Graham Coughlan, a United fanatic who attended several of those finals and succeeded Ole Gunnar Solskjær in goal as he earned his Uefa B licence, reminded his players of his fighting spirit at the time. “We gave ourselves a little glimmer of hope,” Coughlan said afterwards.
That hope was well founded. Two minutes into the second half, the rickety stadium went ballistic. Newport erected a temporary stand to accommodate an extra 1,000 supporters, which added to the noise and increased the capacity closer to 10,000. Those who couldn’t get their hands on tickets resorted to creative measures. A couple of terraced houses on Rodney Road, which overlook the pitch at one end of the Compeed Stand, created space for two dozen or so supporters to take in the game from scaffolding viewing platforms.
Those supporters and those on the extended North Terrace had the best seats in the house when this place boomed with Will Evans, who until two years ago was playing part-time with milking a cow on his parents’ farm in mid-Wales, Adam Lewis’ low cross from the left was converted. Lewis, the on-loan Liverpool left-back who went to school with Trent Alexander-Arnold, was certainly happy every second afterwards.
Suddenly, United looked shot, their early buffer a distant memory as the home support applauded Newport’s every block and basked in United’s every misstep. Altay Bayindir first took a pass straight out of play. “Everywhere we go, watching Newport County, putting on a show,” was the platform chant now looped. “I thought we had them,” Coughlan said. “I was dreaming. At 2-2, they were rattled and they were doing things that were a little uncharacteristic. We just needed a few more moments of magic.”
Coughlan shook his head in disbelief as he stepped in from the heat. In the moments before the first whistle, the Newport players – many of them, also boyhood United fans, including the captain, Ryan Delaney and the long-serving defender Scot Bennett – lined up to shake hands with United colleagues, the home players cradling their children in their arms, telling them that these one-off occasions run much deeper than the dressing room walls. Previously, Bennett and goalkeeper Nick Townsend had tasted Newport’s penchant for carnage – they made life uncomfortable for Manchester City here in 2019 – and they were at it again. As the stadium announcer said in the moments before kick-off: “It’s fair to say Newport is on the map.”
When the game was stopped after 64 minutes when Townsend needed a fair, Coughlan gave Coughlan a chance to get some instructions and his players to get some air. During the week, Coughlan stressed the need to constantly switch off United’s midfield. Morris and Aaron Wildig, free transfers, enjoyed the battle against Casemiro, a five-time Champions League winner, and Fernandes, signed for a combined £117m. Ten Hag must have felt a drop of relief four minutes later, when United regained the lead through Antony. Luke Shaw cut in on his right foot and fired a shot against Townsend’s left post but Antony was close to stabbing the rebound.
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Coughlan greatly appreciated the few minutes he spent with Ten Hag after that, even if the Dutchman didn’t do all his homework. “He congratulated us and thanked us for our hospitality as a club,” said Coughlan. “I told him to hang in there … the resilience and character we’ve had to show at this club, he has to do the same. I wished him all the best. He gave me a small bottle of red wine … but please don’t tell him I don’t drink red wine.”
Newport, who were 16th in League Two, were a credit to themselves and indeed to the pyramid. Newport, a combined squad compared to United, pushed to the final whistle and the game was not really dead until the 94th minute, when Højlund was in the right place to fire in the rebound after the Omari Forson’s representative was rejected, a testament to their unrestricted performance. With just a minute left on the clock, Newport substitute James Waite forced Bayindir into a fingertip save. United had to work up a sweat to get the job done.
“The group represents me: I would never fly a white flag and neither do they,” Coughlan said.
