AFTER an hour of football, last Wednesday, the Seasiders were a goal down to Newport County in an FA Cup replay which had the ingredients for a Blackpool disaster.

The conditions were abysmal, the opponents non-league and those dreaded TV cameras were there to record every move.

The first half was appalling from Blackpool's point of view and it had all the hallmarks of that 1-0 defeat at the hands of non-league Yeovil a year ago.

Speaking of the half Steve McMahon said: "The conditions were awful, but it was the same for both teams. Newport adjusted better to the conditions early on, we were going too long and the ball was running out of play"

But up stepped man of the moment, Brett Ormerod, to save the day. A brace from him helped Pool first to equalise and, after the game had gone into extra time, his second goal finished the non-leaguers off.

The game was action-packed and enjoyable to watch. Newport took the lead when Danny Coid was caught napping, allowing Matt Rose to head past Barnes from Stuart James's 24th-minute cross.

In the second half Newport frustrated the Seasiders who missed several chances to take the lead. But the breakthrough came from Ormerod just after the hour mark when he chipped the ball over the keeper to equalise. Soon after the start of extra time John Murphy made amends for earlier misses with a superb diving header. Ormerod then went on to kill the game off and book Pool a second round home tie against Rochdale on Saturday.