Football League Cup
Preliminary Round
Tuesday 29th July 2025
Kick Off 19.30 On Time!
Barnet 2 Newport County 2 (2-4 pens), attendance 1,789
31’ 0-1 Antwi
42’ 0-2 Reindorf
90’ + 7, 1-2 Galvin
90’ + 9, 2-2 Browne
@ The Hive Stadium
Camrose Avenue
Edgware
HA8 6AG
£13 Admission
No Programme (saw a few Team Sheets).
Having completed ‘the 92’ back in 1990 (joined the 92 Club, but now a lapsed member) I always liked to keep up to date by re-visiting clubs that I’d already visited during their non-league days, just to see how the grounds have changed in the subsequent years. I never got here during their recent stint in the Football League, so thought tonight was as good a time as any to put that right. I’d actually made my first visit here in November 2013, on a midweek trip via Eurotunnel, when living in Brussels, for a 0-0 draw versus Welling United (att.1,172) in a National League game. At least I only had to drive 43 miles tonight, which still took close on two hours, despite the M25 being relatively quiet. Street parking was readily available, less than 10 minutes walk from the stadium and I purchased my ticket for a surprisingly cheap £13 (unlike the £12 cheeseburger and coke inside, which was very poor and tasted bland) from the ticket office at the corner of the stadium as you enter the complex. It’s still a three sided ground, with the near goal end just backing on to the car park. I chose to sit in The Legends Stand, being two rows from the back, right on the halfway line, where the view was excellent. The away section was in the stand behind the goal to the left, with around 250 present, in the end block adjoining our stand.
It was a decent game, with Barnet totally dominating possession, but not able to take advantage of it. Newport opened the scoring just after the half hour mark, when Antwi volleyed in from the angle of the 18 yard box, beating the ‘keeper high into the near top corner of the net and they doubled their lead three minutes before halftime, when Reindorf cut in from the left, weaving between two defenders, then bending a shot into the top corner. Barnet looked to have run out of ideas and quite a few of their fans had already left, when seven minutes into stoppage time they pulled a goal back, when a diagonal cross from the right was swept in at the far post by Galvin. Unbelievably, two minutes later, with what was the last action of the match, they grabbed an equaliser, when Kanu cut inside from the left, beat his man and crossed to the far post where Browne headed in.
So, it was straight to penalties. Newport went first, but their first effort was saved. Barnet scored their first two, but hit the post with the third and saw the fourth saved, leaving Newport to win it with all their next four being scored. Their reward is a first round home tie with Millwall.
