A fog-bound pitch, leeks on the goalposts, players mobbed, enormous demand for tickets... oh, and more fantastic football. In the second part of our look back at Newport County's 1948/49 FA Cup run, we focus on how they bloodied the noses of First Division strugglers Huddersfield Town in the fourth round.

AFTER two seasons of modern day FA Cup heroics, players and fans of Newport County AFC know very well the excitement that January and February bring - and it was the same for the then townsfolk 70 years ago.

A chilly start to 1949 was tempered by County's unexpectedly dominant victory at Leeds on January 8, and the draw for the fourth round was kinder, bringing the anticipation - again well known to present day supporters - of a home tie against a top flight team.

Huddersfield Town had been in what was then called the First Division for almost 30 years, but in 1948/49 were in serious danger of being relegated.

Two wins in the final two matches of the season meant they stayed up by a point, but when the Yorkshire side came to Newport in the fourth round on Saturday January 29 1949, they were 22nd and bottom.

Nevertheless, this was a formidable team, including star man Peter Doherty, a Northern Ireland international, pre-war First Division title winner with Manchester City, and scorer of an FA Cup final goal for Derby County in the latter's 4-1 Wembley victory against Charlton Athletic in 1946.

Huddersfield faced a third round replay against Queen's Park Rangers, eventually winning 5-0, but in Newport the fourth round countdown began somewhat chaotically even before that match had been played.

The South Wales Argus reported an early suspension of ticket sales because a small number had been spotted on sale before all tickets had been circulated to approved vendors.

County had never reached the fourth round before, and sales "depots" were to be opened simultaneously across Newport when all tickets had been delivered, to try to prevent people "dodging" from one queue to another. The aim was that "everybody would have an equal chance of securing a ticket".

Fans had plenty to say about how tickets should be sold, "Up the County" echoing the thoughts of many who wrote to the Argus in suggesting that one ticket each be sold at the turnstiles at the next home game.

"By doing this the directors would be doing justice to the faithful band of supporters who have stood by them in good times and bad, wet weather and fine. It would be hard luck on these supporters if they had to stay away for someone who only went to the County for cup-ties". Sound familiar?

South Wales Argus:

HOPEFUL: Newport County fans queuing for tickets for fourth round tie at home to Huddersfield Town, January 1949

By January 24, with Huddersfield confirmed as the visitors five days later, ticket demand was "staggering", the Argus declaring that "reports from all the selling depots reveal that their supplies were soon exhausted and that hundreds of applicants will be turned away without a ticket". Again, sound familiar?

County's redoubtable captain Ray Wilcox told an audience at the club's dinner dance during the week before the match that "I think we will rise to the occasion and pass into the next round".

South Wales Argus:

County captain Ray Wilcox

This despite a harrowing 1-11 reverse at Notts County the week after the Leeds triumph, and a subsequent 1-1 home draw with fellow strugglers Walsall.

Again however, County rose to the occasion. Watched by a crowd of 22,500 - 2,500 above the original limit after surveyors measured the available seating and standing space at Somerton Park - they pushed the visitors all the way in a match played in thick fog.

South Wales Argus:

Newport County packing them in at Somerton Park for the Huddersfield Town fourth round tie

South Wales Argus:

County's Bobby Harper (right) moves in for the ball against Huddersfield at Somerton Park, January 29 1949

The lead changed hands three times and after extra-time - back then, played before replays were required - ended in a 3-3 draw. Argus football correspondent Marlovian considered this a little harsh on County, though at times it may have been hard to judge.

He admitted that the thick fog made it "impossible to see how (Jimmy) Glazzard's two goals were scored" for Huddersfield, but was fulsome in his praise of the home side.

South Wales Argus:

GETTING AHEAD: An airborne Reg Parker watched by Huddersfield defenders at Somerton Park

"At the risk of being accused of partisanship, I have no hesitation in describing the County's three goals as first class," he wrote.

"Comley's resulted from a grand shot... Williams scored from 20 yards' range and Carr craftily hooked the ball over his own head when he had his back to the Huddersfield goal."

He signed off with another prediction: "If they can reproduce the same form at Huddersfield, they may yet pull off a big surprise." A week later, Saturday February 5, they duly did.

Huddersfield had been confident about that replay, the club's match programme declaring that though the Cup is a "great leveller, there should be no doubt about the result of today's game" and "we expect to be in the last 16 before sundown today". Oh dear.

'Sensational Win by Great-Hearted County Side' was the headline in the Football Argus, above a report of a 3-1 victory, County's "magnificent display" greeted with glee by hundreds of travelling fans:

"Amazing scenes followed... Hundreds of Newport County supporters swarmed across the pitch and carried Wilcox, Williams, Carr and other players shoulder high to the dressing room." The Welsh National Anthem was also sung, long and loud.

Eddie Carr, with two goals, and Reg Parker with one did the scoring, but this was another of those 'all for one and one for all' FA Cup team performances that today's Newport County AFC fans have become familiar with.

Quite where this excellence was coming from is hard to pinpoint 70 years on, but there may have been a touch of Welsh luck in the mix too, Marlovian reporting that, prior to kick-off "the police prevented enthusiastic County supporters from planting leeks in the middle of the pitch, but allowed them to drape them on the goalposts".

South Wales Argus:

A sea of faces on Station Approach, Newport, Saturday February 5 1949, awaiting the Newport County team's return from fourth round victory in Huddersfield

Back in Newport late that night, a greeting party of around 5,000 supporters packed onto Station Approach to welcome the team home.

Marlovian reported that "such was their enthusiasm that the police had great difficulty in saving some of the players from serious injury.

"As it was, Eddie Carr, one of the heroes of the game, had his coat ripped from his back, and Harold Williams lost the contents of his attaché case."

Unable to leave by the main exit, the players were smuggled out of a back entrance by the police.

Manager Tom Bromilow and captain Ray Wilcox were, reported Marlovian, "pinned against the iron gates leading to the station, (and) there were shouts of "speech, speech."

"Both attempted to say a few words, but the cheering was so deafening that they could not be heard."

South Wales Argus:

Crowds at Newport railway station greet the players and staff on their triumphant return from Huddersfield, February 5 1949. Marked with an arrow is County captain Ray Wilcox

Our correspondent was worried for their safety, and also took "a poor view of those persons who jumped on motor-cars parked outside the station. Bonnets and hoods were damaged, and in some cases, the running boards collapsed under the strain of half a dozen bodies."

Within minutes of the final whistle at Huddersfield, Marlovian later noted, "a First Division club offered to present them with a five-figure cheque in exchange for a certain County player".

He knew who said player was, but had been asked not to reveal all and had agreed, for fear of unsettling said player and his teammates ahead of the greatest test of their careers.

County's chairman Lieutenant-Colonel W Harold John OBE said the board was steadfast in its desire to repel all offers, saying: "We are not going to break up the team.

Meanwhile, most of Newport - Marlovian included - was daring to dream. Reminding everyone that Third Division Newport were three games away from a Wembley final, he insisted that luck had played little part in County's success, the players having matched and then mastered their supposed betters in all aspects of the game.

The usual suspects - Carr, Comley, Wilcox, Harold Williams, Parker, Roffi - were praised for their Huddersfield performances, but so too were the others, Newport-born Danny Newall ('a most reliable pillar'), Doug Hayward, Lewis Bradford, Bobby Harper.

South Wales Argus:

County winger Harold Williams

Goalkeeper Alick Grant meanwhile, was so assured he "gave the impression of demonstrating how it should be done to a class of pupils".

But now, Newport County faced the ultimate test...