Match Preview: Brighton face FA Cup banana skin at Newport County
Read a match preview for Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion versus League Two Newport County in the FA Cup and you would probably expect it to predict a routine win for the top flight club.
Not here though. We have been Albion supporters for too long to know that when it comes to facing lower division teams in knockout competitions, nothing is ever simple for the Seagulls.
Over the past 25 years, Brighton have been eliminated 15 times from FA Cup, League Cup and Paint Pot by sides who have played in leagues below them in the football pyramid. Newport themselves are already on the list having won 3-1 at the Amex Stadium in the League Cup in 2013.
Combine that with the Exiles’ reputation as cup giant killers and this has all the markings of a banana skin tie. In this season’s League Cup, Newport eliminated Watford and took Newcastle United to penalties.
Their FA Cup victims over the past four seasons include Leicester City, Middlesbrough and The Leeds United, whilst they also forced a replay against Tottenham Hotspur. Rodney Parade has proven a cup graveyard for many higher division clubs.
Which is why Graham Potter and his Brighton players have to take their trip to south Wales seriously. All the talk in the build up might have been about the debut of Percy Tau, but there is every chance the Lion of Judah’s arrival could be overshadowed by an embarrassing result if the Albion show the sort of disregard for the competition that they did in last year’s third round exit to Sheffield Wednesday. And nobody wants that again.
Newport County this season
Newport are enjoying an excellent 2020-21 campaign and currently sit second in League Two, one point behind leaders Carlisle United but with a game in hand.
Normally, the Exiles are slow starters who pick up around October time, move into the top six and then fade away once their focus gets diverted by their FA Cup heroics.
This year though they went off like a train and have been in the promotion race since day one. Mike Flynn has overseen a slight change in playing style from previous seasons with Newport now a team who place more stock in passing football compared to how direct they were, although they still do have the players to turn 90 minutes into the sort of long ball battle that Potter’s possession-obsessed Albion might struggle with on a Rodney Parade pitch that hosted a rugby match just 24 hours earlier.
It is this versatility in approach that has been behind their success. They can compete with the best footballing sides in League Two and go toe-to-toe with the more brutal outfits, rather like Micky Adams’ Brighton team did the last time the Seagulls competed in the fourth tier.
Recent form
The Exiles’ form prior to Christmas was not great. They have not won in four, losing at home to Oldham Athletic and away at Leyton Orient and drawing on the road against Salford City and Crawley Town.
Newport will however come into the game fully refreshed. They have not played since their stalemate against the Albion’s Sussex neighbours on Boxing Day following a raft of postponements.
Brighton’s terrible recent form needs no introduction, but the second half comeback from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 with Wolverhampton Wanderers should have greatly improved the mood in the camp.
It will also have given the squad a little bit of momentum – which is why the Newport game is now more important than a lot of people might think.
If the Albion can build on that momentum by progressing in the FA Cup and get a little run going, then that can serve them well going into an important run of Premier League matches.
But suffer the ignominy of losing to League Two opponents and all the good that came from the draw against Wolves will be gone and it will be back to square one.
We saw similar happen last season against Sheffield Wednesday. Brighton came into the game having taken four very good points from Plucky Little Bournemouth and Chelsea, only to treat the FA Cup with disdain and suffer elimination against the Owls.
Suddenly, the momentum which two good league results had built was gone and the Albion would not win again until beating Arsenal 2-1 after lockdown.
Potter should not underestimate the impact of not caring about the FA Cup on what happens over the coming months in the bread and butter of Premier League football.
Brighton v Newport County head-to-head
A lot of fans reading this match preview might think that Brighton v Newport County is quite a novel fixture seeing as the clubs have faced each other just once in over 50 years.
And whilst meetings may have been few and far between since England lifted the World Cup, prior to the 1960s the Albion and Newport played each other in virtually every season for 38 years in Division Three South between 1920 and the Seagulls winning their first promotion to Division Two in 1958.
That leads a head-to-head record which reads 71 matches, 40 Brighton wins, 12 draws and 19 Newport wins. It is a fixture which has been good for goals too with 210 hitting the back of the net – including the Albion’s record league victory when they hammered Newport 9-1 at the Goldstone in 1951.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Newport County
Last six meetings
• Brighton 1-3 Newport County (League Cup First Round, 06/08/13)
• Newport County 1-2 Brighton (FA Cup First Round, 26/11/66)
• Brighton 1-0 Newport County (Division Four, 15/09/64)
• Newport County 1-1 Brighton (Division Four, 07/09/64)
• Brighton 1-2 Newport County (Division Four, 21/12/63)
• Newport County 2-0 Brighton (Division Four, 31/08/62)
Despite the Albion’s domination of the head-to-head, it is actually Newport who have enjoyed the better of the past six meetings with three wins and two draws.
The Exiles completed a Division Four double over Brighton in the 1962-63 season and the last match between the two needs no introduction.
It was Newport’s first game in the League Cup following their 25 year absence from the Football League and they duly marked it in style by winning 3-1 in extra time at the Amex, ruining Oscar Garcia’s first competitive home game in charge of the Albion.
Team news
Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau. Percy Tau.
Newport’s key players
Josh Sheehan is the main main at Rodney Parade. The midfielder dictates play from deep with his talents attracting plenty of attention from clubs higher up the pyramid, especially since he broke into the full Welsh squad last year.
Just like Brighton, Newport have a couple of dangerous wing backs in Ryan Haynes and Liam Shepherd and it might also be worth keeping an eye on Joss Labadie, the sort of no-nonsense midfielder which every club in League Two needs. Labadie is effectively the Exiles’ version of Charlie Oatway.
The betting value for Newport County v Brighton
Other than the very obvious bet of Percy Tau to score a hat-trick which you should be sticking your mortgage on at 70/1 with Paddy Power, Newport to win is a generous 33/5.
That seems like a massive price for a lower league side with a giant killer reputation playing at home against a team in horrible form with a manager who is unlikely to be taking the game too seriously. And winning some cash would at least ease the pain of the potential embarrassment that would come from losing at Rodney Parade.
An interesting subplot
Ben White had his first loan away from Brighton when he joined Newport County for the 2017-18 season and in our opposition fan preview with the 1912 Exiles Podcast, they were gushing in their praise for the defender.
Presenter Ed Bridges told us: “We loved Ben White. It was clear that he would go on to great things, and we have watched his career with interest. He is a player who we are really proud to have seen in an amber shirt.”
In the unlikely event that White plays against his former club, it would be a sign of how far he has come – and a reminder that, contrary to popular belief, he was not some plodder who Brighton did not rate until The Leeds United turned him into the best defender in the world.
Rather, White’s pathway to becoming a Premier League defender has always been carefully mapped out. And it was at Newport where it all began.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Newport County away
This is a redundant section of our Brighton versus Newport County preview, seeing as we have never been to Rodney Parade. Isn’t it typical that the FA Cup throws up a new ground for the Albion to play at a time when supporters cannot attend matches?
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Newport County away
Again, we have nothing to give. Fingers crossed that in a future match preview, this section does not read “Brighton losing 3-0 against Newport County in the FA Cup in 2021.”
Newport County’s most famous fan
No idea if he is a Newport fan or not, but Michael Sheen is from the city. He famously had a spell as Brighton manager in the 1973-74 season before walking out to take over at Leeds.
Sheen was succeeded as Albion boss by his assistant, Timothy Spall, who would later go into a hiding by transforming himself into a rat and living with Ron Weasley.
Prediction
This one goes one of two ways. Brighton either win comfortably with the Lion of Judah taking his first steps towards the Ballon d’Or, or Brighton exit the FA Cup and there is a total meltdown among supporters. The heart says 4-0 to the Albion, but the head 1-0 to Newport.
