More than 7,000 Newport County fans will be at Wembley Stadium for their FA Cup fourth round replay against Spurs this evening (Wednesday, 7.45pm).
It is a massive match for the Exiles and manager Michael Flynn says winning would be the greatest result in the club’s history.
But there is also a feeling that Flynn wants to get this cup run out of the way and focus on firing up Newport’s bid for a League Two play-off spot.
There are mixed emotions because, after suffering back-to-back defeats, County badly need to regain that winning feeling against struggling Forest Green Rovers at home on Saturday (3pm).
Flynn, though, also admits: “We are dreaming now, because dreams do come true occasionally.”
The teams drew 1-1 at Rodney Parade when Harry Kane fired a late equaliser and the tie will be decided at Wembley. Rochdale await the winners in the last 16, but neither team will be thinking about that.
Flynn acknowledges that winning against Spurs would mean ‘everything for the club’. but he is also aware that Newport’s promotion chase is faltering.
For now, though, Flynn and his players are focussed on the FA Cup and nothing else and he says: “The cup run allows us to plan for the future and take the pressure off where we going to find the next month’s money from.
“Those pressures are there in the lower leagues. We can improve our training facilities, it will be ideal if we have another pitch, and obviously we need a training base because the last one caught fire.
“It’s what we need as a football club and it would be nice if the squad budget was increased a little bit next season. All these things are possible now because of this FA Cup run.
“Tottenham should still have enough to turn us over, but you never know – and that’s the beauty of the FA Cup.”
Flynn is full of praise for Mauricio Pochettino, who reacted with a smile when a leaked dossier of the Spurs weaknesses Newport were keen to exploit was leaked to national newspaper.
“I dealt with the leak of the so-called secret dossier manager to manager,” said Flynn.
“Things have a habit of coming out and it happens in football. It’s the way it is, nothing is private these days, but there was no malice in it.
“I apologised on our behalf to Mauricio for it getting out. It was helpful in preparing for the first game against Spurs because we needed all the help we could get.
“We exchanged numbers before the game. He shook my hand and gave me his details, which shows the class of him.
“We’ve exchanged a couple of messages back and forth since then. There is no issue here and he has bigger things to worry about.
It’s something we do on every team and we did it on Lincoln and Colchester in our last two matches.
“There was a lot of nice things in there as well! But we need to worry about ourselves. If we worry about what Spurs can do we will be overawed and lose concentration on the task ahead.”
This has been Newport’s best FA Cup run in almost 40 years and they have earned around £700,000 in prize money, television rights and gate receipts.
County have played at Wembley twice before, winning against Wrexham in a play-off final five years ago to earn a place back in the Football League and losing against York City in the FA Trophy final a year earlier.
David Pipe played in both of those finals and looks certain to be in the starting line-up against Spurs, replacing Tyler Reid at full-back.
Newport will be without Sean Rigg, who has had his County contract cancelled by mutual consent. He has signed for Bath City on part-time terms and is becoming a tattooist.
Newport County AFC will be only the second League Two team to trial the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system when they play at Wembley.
Flynn looks certain to select a starting line-up with a view to ensuring his team are ready and fresh for the match.
Spurs defenders Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose are unavailable because of injuries, while January signing Lucas Moura is ineligible.
Harry Winks and Serge Aurier were among the substitutes for the 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Anfield after recovering from injuries and could start.
Newport County, possible: Day, Pipe, White, Demetriou, Butler, Tozer, Sheehan, Dolan, Willmott, Amond, Hayes.
Spurs, possible: Lloris, Aurier, Vertonghen, Sanchez, Trippier, Winks, Wanyama, Alli, Lamela, Eriksen, Kane
Fifth round ties will be played over the weekend of February 17 and 18. Winning clubs will receive £180,000 from the FA Cup prize fund.
Fifth round draw
1 Sheffield Wednesday v Swansea City
2 West Bromwich Albion v Southampton
3 Chelsea v Hull City
4 Leicester City v Sheffield United
5 Huddersfield Town v Manchester United
6 Rochdale v Newport County or Tottenham Hotspur
7 Brighton and Hove Albion v Coventry City
8 Wigan Athletic v Manchester City