Graham Coughlan: Newport players and fans showed club DNA in Carabao Cup win

Posted Wednesday, August 09, 2023 by PA

Newport boss Graham Coughlan hailed a morale-boosting victory for his side as they fought back from a goal down to beat League One Charlton 3-1 in the Carabao Cup first round.

Daniel Kanu put the visitors ahead just before half-time, but second-half strikes from Aaron Wildig, Will Evans and Seb Palmer-Houlden sealed a second-round spot for the Exiles for the seventh successive season.

“I’m really pleased and I’m delighted for the lads,” said Coughlan, whose side were beaten 3-0 at Accrington on the opening day.

“They’ve had a tough couple of weeks. It’s not been easy.

“The fans were unbelievable tonight as well, even when we went 1-0 down, the way they got behind us.

“I’m trying to explain the club, the DNA and its principles to some of the new players, I don’t think I have to explain it after tonight. I think they’ve fully got it, and they know what the fans expect of them.”

Charlton boss Dean Holden questioned his players’ mentality after they allowed their fourth-tier opponents back into the game.

“We got ourselves into a good position with the goal just before half-time and we had them exactly where we wanted them until 60 minutes,” said the Addicks manager.

“We were 1-0 up and in complete control, complete dominance, but we didn’t have enough in the final third to take the game away from them.

“As comfortable as we were, there were too many errors. The goals were really poor. It was too easy for them to score. To end up losing 3-1 is really disappointing.

“There is potentially a mentality issue there. We need to stamp our authority on the game and take it away from them. But we didn’t do it and we got punished.”