National League Eastleigh forced League Two Newport County to a reply, after drawing 1-1 at Rodney Parade, via a late Chris Maguire penalty, which he dispatched emphatically into the top right hand corner.
The Scotman’s goal sent the 1000 travelling fans into pandemonium after he cancelled out James Clarke’s opener for Newport, earlier in the half.
In the first half, the Welsh side could and should have put the Spitfires to the sword after squandering a handful of golden chances which would later come back to haunt Graham Coughlan’s side.
The Hampshire side’s mission of getting through got tougher when defender George Langston was shown a straight red card in the 38th minute for an elbow on Will Evans.
If this was a boxing match, it would have been a knockout victory for Newport before the half-time whistle after a one-sided affair in the opening period.
The first chance of the second half came to Maguire after the Eastleigh goalkeeper, Joe McDonnell, launched the ball upfield, took the ball down and rocked the post with a thunderous strike.
The Ironsides finally beat McDonnell when a low fizzed corner found Clarke who hit the ball first time and hammered the ball into the corner of the goal after evading his man.
1-0 down, down to 10 men, it looked like the Spitfires’ had the writing on the wall and their FA Cup journey would come to an end but they were brave in possession and chased the game, excellently.
With a player less, Richard Hill’s side were brave and forced the issue as Paul McCallum was dragged down by Clarke for a penalty with just under 10 minutes of normal time left.
Maguire uncorked a cracker from 12 yards which sent Eastleigh into the Fourth Round draw, alongside Newport, which takes place on Monday night to see who they will get if they get passed the Welsh side at the Silverlake Stadium.
