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NEWPORT boss Graham Coughlan has told his Manchester United-fanatic family: “Support me or I’m locking you out of the house.”
The Welsh team face the biggest game in their history when they host Erik ten Hag’s men at Rodney Parade in a classic David and Goliath fourth-round FA Cup tie.
But Irishman Coughlan, 49, has been a lifelong United fan along with most of his family.
Yet tomorrow he expects them all to be cheering on his League Two minnows – and said: “My daughter will be supporting me and the wife better be supporting me – or else she’s out the door.
“My dad and my mum will be over, and they’ll obviously be hoping I do well.
“I don’t think there’ll be any split loyalties – I’ll lock the door on them on Sunday night if they’re supporting anyone other than me.”
Although the League Two club have beaten Leicester and pushed Tottenham and Man City all the way on home turf in recent years, facing United is in a whole new stratosphere – especially for Coughlan.
He said: “I was at the League Cup final with the kids last year and they gave me one of the best nights of my life in 99 in Barcelona – I watched that in Dublin.
“I saw them win the FA Cup in 85, I was there when Liverpool beat them in the League Cup in 84 as well.
“There’s so many. My missus will always accompany me when the big games come around, the kids come with me for the league games.
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“I followed United years ago when they couldn’t win an argument, let alone a game! It was tough being a United fan at that time because Liverpool were dominating and I used to get battered every day in school.
“But they soon turned that around. They’re going through a similar period now and they will come through it, I have no doubt.”
Newport, who sit 14th in the fourth tier, have added extra seats to boost their capacity to just under 10,000 for the visit of United and Coughlan says the atmosphere will be red hot.
He said: “Irrespective this season whether we’ve been winning, losing or drawing, our fans have got right behind us and at times dragged us over the line.
“That’s unique and a strength of this football club and community.
“You can hear everything on the touchline, sometimes you don’t want to, because they’re that close. They’re on top of you and it’s a unique atmosphere.
“It is hostile, it is noisy, and when they start beating that drum it’s an atmosphere to savour.”
Newport will face a struggling Erik ten Hag side that are a different outfit to the ones Coughlan grew up watching[/caption]
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