Plymouth Argyle 0 Newport County 0

AFTER two steps back, this was another big leap forward for Newport County AFC – even if they still have to finish the job in next week’s replay.

County’s FA Cup campaign looked to be over for another year when Sean Rigg was shown a straight red card after just 23 minutes of Saturday’s second round tie at Home Park.

It would have been easy for the Exiles to exit the cup with a whimper and fall back on the old adage of ‘concentrating on the league’ and the battle to avoid relegation from League Two.

But a combination of a poor performance from hosts Plymouth Argyle, who are going through a rough patch after a superb start to the season, and a dogged display from Graham Westley’s men ensured that the sides will do it all again on December 13.

The 10 men did brilliantly to frustrate their hosts and the home fans with centre-backs Scot Bennett and Abdoulaye Meite particularly impressive.

Bennett was back from suspension and injury and showed how much he was missed at Blackpool last week with an inspirational performance.

And Meite, who is clearly still not fully fit, banished memories of his disappointing debut at Bloomfield Road with a commanding display.

Darren Jones is back from suspension for Tuesday’s crunch League Two clash with Stevenage but Westley may find it hard to drop veteran Meite.

And the Ivory Coast international demonstrated that his experience could be a big asset if his body holds up.

Goalkeeper Joe Day was also superb and made a stunning save to deny Connor Smith from point-blank range in first half stoppage time.

But it wasn’t all backs-to-the-wall stuff. The visitors had chances to win it at the death with tireless striker Rhys Healey just about denied by Pilgrims stopper Luke McCormack.

Westley was delighted with the way his players went about their task after the sending off.

“Credit to the players for what they did in the second half,” he said. “I thought it was outstanding and they did everything they needed to do to stay in the hat.

“I thought we looked the more likely [to win it].

“I thought we were hesitant in the first half and off our game.

“We showed too much respect to an away ground, albeit they were attacking their own fans and there was always going to be a chance they might get some momentum that way.

“In the second half I thought tactically the players were brilliant,” he added.

“They did the job that was asked of them and, yes, we were relying on counter-attacks but our counter-attacks were dangerous.

“And defensively we were resilient, organised and highly professional.”

That bodes well for the hectic weeks ahead and Westley is feeling positive.

“I think there’s a growing capability in the squad and there’s a much better understanding of what it takes to win football matches,” said the Exiles boss.

“I said when I came that we needed to keep more clean sheets, concede fewer goals and be more deadly going forward and we’ve been both of those things.

“We’ve been better without the ball and better with the ball.

“It was going to be a bit backs-to-the-wall after we went down to 10 men but we didn’t play the game on the back foot, we actually played on the front foot in that second half.”

County: Day, Barnum-Bobb, Meite, Bennett, Butler, Tozer, Green (Jebb, 46), Rigg, Sheehan, O’Hanlon (Myrie-Williams, 32), Healey (Jackson, 82)

Subs not used: Bittner, Labadie, Compton, Randall

Booked: Barnum-Bobb, Butler, Bennett

Sent off: Rigg

Referee: John Brooks

Attendance: 5,071 (266 County)