Newport County stormed into the Emirates FA Cup third round tie thanks to a 4-0 home victory against Wrexham at Rodney Parade.
The Exiles now entertain former Premier League champions Leicester City on Sunday, January 6 (4.30pm).
The dismissal of Wrexham’s Luke Young after 12 minutes left the Dragons with a massive task.
There were bookings for Shaun Pearson, Rob Lainton and Dan Butler in the aftermath of that red card.
Newport took advantage with second half goals from Padraig Amond, Jamille Matt, an own-goal from Mark Carrington and Dan Butler.
🎫 | Following tonight’s Emirates FA Cup Second Round victory, Newport County AFC will play Leicester City FC in the Third Round at Rodney Parade at 4.30pm on Sunday 6th January 2019.#OurJourneyContinues
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— Newport County AFC (@NewportCounty) December 11, 2018
Manager Mike Flynn praised Wrexham after his teams convincing win, saying: “Wrexham are a good team and they’ll go close to promotion this season.
“It was damage limitation for them in the end, but they deserve a bit of credit as well because they were the better team in the first match.”
Wrexham, who are fourth in the Vanarama National League, now turn to their FA Trophy tie against Boston United at home on Saturday, while County entertain League Two leaders MK Dons.
Flynn made three changes to his starting line-up. Scot Bennett was a handed a first start in six weeks after recovering from a hamstring injury, taking over from Andrew Crofts.
Matty Dolan returned after a knee injury, replacing Mark O’Brien, who, like Crofts, is now injured.
Antoine Semenyo completed the alterations stepping in for Josh Sheehan.
Wrexham interim manager Graham Barrow made two changes. Captain Pearson and Luke Young both returned.
The turning point came Young went in to a challenge on Mickey Demetriou and referee Kevin Johnson produced his red card.
“It looked fair and square to me,” said Barrow. “If you see both of Youngy’s legs he’s got deep cuts down both shins.
“My interpretation was that he got the ball first. That was key.
“We all know the lad hasn’t got that malice in him to make a bad challenge.
“It was so quick. The red was out instantly.”
“A lot revolves around the sending-off.”
Wrexham regrouped and fought hard against steady pressure, going in at half-time with the score still 0-0.
They even went close when Paul Rutherford smashed in a shot from 25 yards and goalkeeper Joe Day tipped the effort over.
County went head four minutes after half-time when Dan Butler’s floated delivery to the far post found Dolan unmarked at the back post. His header looked to be drifting wide of the far post, but hit an unaware Padraig Amond and bounced into the net.
That brought up 12 goals for the season for the Irishman, sending him joint top of the goalscoring charts with Jamille Matt, but Amond was swiftly put back into second place as Matt struck just before the hour.
The introduction of Robbie Willmott on 52 minutes gave County an added dimension and he helped set up the second goal. His menacing run into the area freed space and when Antoine Semenyo intentionally left the delivery, Matt score to make it 2-0.
Willmott’s run into the area from wide after 65 minutes and this time his shot flew in off the unfortunate Mark Carrington.
Amond hit a post just before injury time and then Butler completed the scoring with a powerful shot into the bottom corner.
Flynn talked about the dismissal of Young in his post-match moments, saying: “It was a full-blooded challenge, but we’ve had that against us this season.
“After that I thought we were a little bit slow in our build-up. We took too many touches, overhit crosses and passes and tried to force the issue.
“We knew that if we improved the quality in the wide areas, we’d cause them problems. And that’s exactly what we did.
“I can’t praise the players enough – they’ve made the club a lot of money, which is huge for us.
“They did a highly professional job and I’m proud of them.”
Newport County (4-4-2): Day, Pipe, Franks, Demetriou, capt (Pring 75), Butler, Bennett (Willmott 52), Dolan (Labadie 66), Bakinson, Semenyo, Matt, Amond. Subs not used: Townsend, Harris, Sheehan, Forbes
Wrexham (4-1-4-1): Lainton, Carrington, Lawlor, Pearson (capt), Jennings, Young, Wright, Summerfield (Deverdics 71), Rutherford, Grant (Fondop 79), Beavon (Holroyd 56). Subs not used: Dibble, Sargent, Thorn, Beaumont
Referee: Kevin Johnson
Attendance: 4,143 (501 away)