[ad_1]
Brighton sealed their place in the FA Cup fourth round with a 4-3 penalty shootout victory at Newport.
Jason Steele produced impressive saves to deny the first two shots from Newport’s point by Josh Sheehan and Mickey Demetriou, with Pascal Gross scoring Brighton’s opening penalty.
Tom King saved Neal Maupay to keep the hosts in touch before Joss Labadie put them on the scoreboard, with Yves Bissouma hitting the wood to bring the scores to 1-1 after three penalties apiece.
Ryan Taylor and Lewis Dunk exchanged penalties, but Steele saved Liam Shephard to give Leandro Trossard a chance to win the tie for Brighton, only for King to save his effort with his feet.
Jamie Proctor and Davy Propper scored before Steele denied Scot Bennett, his fourth stop on the penalty shoot-out, Webster redeemed by setting up the winning shot.
The game took place after Newport joined forces with the Dragons rugby side, which also plays in Rodney Parade and hosted the Ospreys on Saturday night, to pay for a dome cover to combat the cold weather.
Newport had lost a couple of recent League Two games due to frozen surfaces and the field was playable despite being bare and patchy.
Brighton manager Graham Potter, back in South Wales after a one-season stoppage in 2018-19, made five changes from the team that shared six goals with Wolves in their last Premier League outing.
But Ben White, who made 51 appearances with Newport on loan three seasons ago, was held back as Brighton looked to claim a first win since Nov. 21.
Padraig Amond should have put Newport ahead within four minutes of running into Dunk’s weak back pass, but the cup specialist, who had scored in memorable wins over Leicester and Middlesbrough, sent his effort off the far post. .
King held back the easy attempts by Yves Bissouma and Alexis Mac Allister and shoved Dunk’s powerful header aside.
Brighton got even closer after 34 minutes when Zeqiri’s close-range effort at the far post took off before King reached out to direct the ball over the crossbar.
Newport had been domesticated for the most part after their initial explosion, but an overly casual mistake by Steele almost led to an opening goal.
Amond threw the ball into the goal, but Dunk stayed on his toes to retreat to the goal line and hook to safety.
Newport was buoyed by that opportunity and forced pressure on both sides of the interval with some dangerous set-pieces deliveries that worried the visitors.
It was now a more even competition than it had been for long stretches of the first half, but the Brighton threat was still there and Zeqiri took the lead from eight yards.
Brighton also appealed for a penalty when Dunk went down, but referee Lee Mason shook up the game and substitute Propper fired the fumble.
King reacted well to capsize March’s cross, but Brighton was relieved to see Steele blocked Josh Sheehan’s fierce shot before an extraordinary finish in normal time.
[ad_2]