AFC Wimbledon 1-1 Newport County (5-4 pens)
by Joseph Musa
at Cherry Red Records Stadium

JOHNNIE JACKSON is dreaming of an away fixture against a Premier League side in the next round of the League Cup after watching his AFC Wimbledon team win on penalties vs Newport County.

The game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, goalkeeper Nathan Bishop to the rescue as the Dons Number One saved Matt Smith’s decisive penalty and Steve Seddon then scored the crucial fifth penalty as the Dons advance into the next round winning 5-4 (pens).

AFC Wimbledon manager Jackson said after the game that “it was a bit different approaching this match as it’s usually the league that kicks off the campaign, but regardless we’re happy to go through and hopefully get a Premier League team away as that’ll be nice for the fans.”

The Dons had the better of the first half where both teams were positive as Newport County’s keeper Jordan Wright was called to make a few saves parrying the ball away from James Tilley’s strike at the edge of the area and then right before the half ended as Tilley was involved again, but this time crossing for Aron Sasu whose first time effort was saved by Wright.

Yayha Bamba was a constant threat for Newport as the debutant’s pace and trickery was the reason a few Dons players picked up yellow cards.

Experienced striker Jayden Stockley who only signed for AFC this last week came on in the 66th minute then gave away a penalty two minutes later, Shaquille Gwengwe stepped up and his penalty was saved by former Manchester United keeper Bishop’s left foot.

That didn’t stop Newport as three minutes later, Gwengwe laid the ball off to Bamba who cut in from the left wing to curl a brilliant shot from outside the area beating the diving Bishop.

Nine minutes were added on and it looked like Newport were going to cause an upset until the ball fell to Callum Maycock in the box and he volleyed home to equalise.

Credit to the 373 Newport fans who travelled to south-west London as they were singing throughout most of the game, they remained in good spirits and gave their players a good send off after losing a close penalty shootout.

New Newport boss Hayden Mullins will be happy with the effort his team gave noting the squad are a couple short on players and remains optimistic they’ll be a few more incomings before the window closes.