The Third Division side were handed a few kind draws in the early rounds, but they were desperately unlucky to lose in the quarter-finals and miss out on a trip to Benfica in the last four

As I watched Swansea City progress in the Europa League before Christmas, my mind inescapably rewound to the 1980s, recalling similar such adventures for the Welsh club. Swansea participated in the old European Cup Winners’ Cup four times, but nothing they did in the 1980s matched the exploits of Newport County in the 1980-81 season. Newport’s tale is one of triumph and despair that swung from hopeless to expectant before ultimately concluding sadly with a massive slice of ill fortune. Not bad for a club that years previously had struggled for mere existence.

To understand Newport’s achievements, first we need to assess just where they had come from. In 1976, the club came close to bankruptcy, their off-field troubles neatly reflecting matters on the pitch. Newport finished 22nd in the 24-team Fourth Division, and had to apply for re-election to the Football League. Mind you, they were used to this situation – the club have gone through the re-election process 10 times in their history – but as the 1976-77 season unfolded it looked as if Newport’s time in the Football League was up.

A glance at the Fourth Division table going into the final match of the season shows Newport’s predicament. Under the management of Colin Addison since January, the team had been revived, but a defeat in their final home game against Workington would have meant another re-election ordeal and possible relegation. Newport’s 1-0 win, their fifth successive victory, completed the great escape, and for the next few seasons, the club moved in the right direction.

Len Ashurst took over from Addison and consolidated results over the next few seasons, finishing seventh the next year and then gaining promotion to the Third Division in 1979-80 by beating Walsall on the last day of the season. It completed a fantastic year for Newport, their victory in the Welsh Cup securing their entry to the 1980-81 European Cup Winners’ Cup, and paving the way for the adventures ahead.

The first round draw was kind to Newport. They were paired with Northern Irish part-timers Crusaders, a team full of the obligatory civil servants, plasterers, factory and shipyard workers. Crusaders manager Ian Russell was forced to take unpaid leave, losing four days pay from his role as the head of the Science Department at Belfast’s Newtonbreda High School, as his team made the journey to Wales. “It’s a bit of a sacrifice. But it will be worth it if we get a good result in the first leg.”

Ashurst was taking nothing for granted, pointing to Crusaders’ efforts against Liverpool at Anfield in the 1976-77 European Cup, a match the visitors lost 2-0. Realistically though, Newport would have too much for their opponents, and so it transpired.

In front of a crowd of 6,285 at Somerton Park, Newport won 4-0, with goals from strike duo Dave Gwyther and John Aldridge, winger Kevin Moore and defender Dave Bruton. The return leg was drawn 0-0. Ashurst described it as “just about the worst game I’ve seen”, but Newport were comfortably into the next round, where Norwegian side Haugar awaited.

Between legs, Haugar would gain promotion to the Norwegian First Division, managed by former West Ham and Millwall player Dennis Burnett. A fine 3-1 aggregate victory over Swiss team FC Sion in the first round had set up the clash with Newport, although Burnett openly admitted that his team’s British style of play would probably play into the hands of the Welsh club. For Newport, the cup run was a welcome distraction from their poor early season form. The club were struggling to come to terms with the demands of the Division Three, but they gradually found their feet as the season progressed.

Torrential rain in Norway almost forced the first leg to be moved 10 miles away to Kopervik, but after 100 truck-loads of sawdust were dumped on the pitch, the match went ahead. Unsurprisingly, the playing surface was awful. Newport had the better of the 0-0 draw, with Aldridge and skipper Keith Oakes both missing glorious chances to win the match. Ashurst was fairly confident that his side would have enough in Wales to progress: “We saw nothing from Haugar to frighten us and with the right approach we should beat them at Newport.”

Just a couple of days after the first leg, Ashurst splashed £45,000 on Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Mark Kendall, but Gary Plumley continued to play the remaining Cup Winners’ Cup matches. Ashurst’s confidence after the first leg was well-founded, Newport’s crushing 6-0 victory in the end probably flattering the Norwegians. Goals from Gwyther, Welsh Under-21 international Steve Lowndes, Aldridge, Moore and two from Tommy Tynan booked Newport a quarter-final place, as the British press began to take a keen interest in the feelgood story behind the Third Division side.

Despite avoiding European heavyweights such as Benfica, Feyernoord and Dinamo Tbilisi, very few gave Newport any hope against the East German team Carl Zeiss Jena. They had knocked out Roma and holders Valencia already and were flying high in the East German First Division, so their coach Hans Meyer was understandably confident before the first leg in Jena. “We expect Newport to play above themselves for at least part of the game. But their industry should be no match for our skill and European experience.” On paper at least, his cockiness looked justified.

Ashurst, who was without the services of Aldridge (injured), and his record signing Alan Waddle (ineligible) was realistic about the task ahead: “I know we’re the underdogs and it will be largely a containing exercise for us, but we’re determined to do well here.”

Newport arrived in Germany during Fasching – a pre-Lent festival celebrated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria – which certainly calmed nerves before the big test. The town was in full party mode in the build-up to the quarter-final and the carnival atmosphere was expected to continue, with Jena fans hoping to see the tie put to bed in the first leg.

Newport surprised Jena, taking the game to the hosts from the start, but after the East Germans had weathered the early storm they started exerting pressure of their own. After 22 minutes Newport’s resistance cracked, as Jurgen Raab scored after a scramble, the first goal the Welsh team had conceded during their cup run. Undeterred, Newport absorbed all Jena had to throw at them before grabbing a priceless away goal, Tommy Tynan scoring six minutes before the break with a good finish that beat Hans-Ulrich Grapenthin at his near post.

Both Raab and Tynan would repeat their first-half exploits as the match drew to a conclusion. Raab’s 85th-minute goal looked to have won the match for the Germans, but with pretty much the last kick of the game, Tynan slipped the ball under Grapenthin after great work down the right by Gwyther. Tynan’s goal stunned the Germans, and left a shell-shocked Mayer proclaiming that “Newport are holding all the trumps”.

“What a night,” said a delighted Ashurst after the 2-2 draw. “The lads were marvellous. Now we must stand a great chance of getting into the semi-finals.” The achievement of holding Jena to a draw should not be under-valued. The Third Division side fully deserved the credit that came their way. “Newport, the minnows who played like giants” declared the Times headline, as unbelievably Newport were one match away from becoming the first Third Division club to reach the semi-finals of a European cup competition.

Cup fever swept the town, ensuring Newport’s first capacity crowd of 18,000 in 21 years. As the players trained on a pitch in the shadows of Uskmouth Power Station in a relaxed and confident mood, all of a sudden people began to believe that the impossible was now attainable. “We have learned that we have nothing to fear,” said Ashurst on the eve of the match, exuding confidence in comparison to a circumspect Meyer.

Due to a combination of injuries and suspensions, Jena were without six of the men who had finished off Valencia. Meyer admitted: “Our situation is very, very difficult. It is only normal to expect Newport to go through to the semi-final, though we will try everything.” The manager sounded as if the world was against him and his mood was probably not improved when his team arrived at their accommodation to see the West German flag fluttering above the building.

If Meyer was feeling unlucky, then he should have tried being in Ashurst’s shoes at the final whistle. In a superb display, Newport did everything but score, on a night that must still rankle with any Newport fan old enough to have been at a buzzing Somerton Park. Five goal-line clearances, a crossbar rattled and a quite breathtaking save at the end of a night of heartbreak indicates just how unfortunate Newport were.

Skipper Oakes was the first to be denied, his goalbound header cleared off the line, the defender agonisingly close to adding to his impressive tally of 10 goals that season. From the resulting corner, Newport’s players were convinced that Gwyther’s header had crossed the line. “It was unbelievable. I thought at least two of our efforts were in,” Oakes claimed later, but if Newport felt hard done by, they did not let it show.

The hits just kept on coming. Oakes again thwarted by a defender on the line, as a frankly startled Jena continued to ride their luck. Eventually, the one-way traffic stopped, with Plumley forced into a couple of smart saves in the rare moments that Jena managed to cross the halfway line. But ask any football supporter who sees his team spurn endless opportunities what they fear the most and they will all give you the same answer: we will pay for these missed chances at some point.

Lothar Kurbjuweit’s free-kick was well struck, but a gaping hole in the defensive wall and poor goalkeeping from Plumley were responsible for Jena’s winner. Silence descended upon the ground as the Germans celebrated taking an undeserved lead, but with two away goals in the bank, Newport knew they were still just a goal away from progressing. Easier said than done.

Tynan tested Grapenthin from a free-kick towards the end of the half, and barring a glaring miss by Raab, the second half was again all about Newport’s bad luck and the charmed life of Jena’s goal. Tynan struck the bar; Lowndes saw a shot deflected over; Grapenthin dramatically kept out Gwyther’s close-range header, and Moore was the latest player to see a German clear an effort off the line. It just wouldn’t go in.

Just when everyone had given up hope, one final moment of agony was bestowed upon the players and fans. In stoppage time, Grapenthin kept Moore’s header out with a stunning save, the keeper fully making up for his sloppy display in the first leg. “I’ve seen good goalkeeping performances, and that was as good as anything I’ve seen,” said a deflated Ashurst post-match, no one quite sure how Newport had failed to score on an evening of frustration.

The one-word headline in the Daily Mirror neatly summed up the Newport experience on 18 March 1981: “Heartbreak”. Ashurst admitted that many of his players were in tears in the dressing room, quite understandably seeing as they had completely dominated the match, and come so close to a place in the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final. But their heads could be held up high, at the end of their European journey.

Jena would go on to lose the final – perhaps they had used up all their luck in Wales – and Newport managed to recover from their disappointment by dragging themselves away from the threat of relegation, and finishing 12th. But soon, the glory nights of that European run would become a distant memory.

After narrowly missing out on promotion to the Second Division in the 1982-83 season under the management of Addison, things started to unravel. Tynan and Aldridge departed within a few years, debts began to accrue, and back-to-back relegations in 1986-87 and 1987-88 left the club in the Conference by the end of the decade. By 1989, the club was £330,000 in debt and unable to pay their players, and by February 27 the club was no more, wound-up in the high court.

To end this piece on such a low would be wrong though. Newport County AFC rose from the ashes of the club that ran from 1912 to 1989, and are now performing solidly in League Two, and the whole idea of this blog was to remember with fondness the underdog tale of Newport’s European days in 1980-81. It was an exciting time in the club’s history, as Newport went on a European tour and were so close to making the last four of the Cup Winners’ Cup. They may have had a little luck with the draw, but that all ran out on that infamous night against Jena. Either way though, what great memories.

• This blog first appeared on That 1980s Sports Blog
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Steven Pye

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