Jacko's Sporting Almanac

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Jacko's Sporting Almanac: Newport County's Cold War

Newport County's Cold War

BBC Radio Wales - Jacko's Sporting Almanac, Newport County's Cold War

When lowly Newport County went behind the Iron Curtain and shocked European giants.

Marking the 40th anniversary of one of the most remarkable episodes in Welsh football history - when lowly Newport County went behind the Iron Curtain and shocked European giants.

Their fans were followed by the secret police, the locals were more interested in their jeans than their football, and no-one gave them a chance when Newport County went behind the Iron Curtain 40 years ago. But the lowly Third Division side were made of stern stuff - and Peter Jackson talks to veterans of that trip to tell the story of one of the most remarkable episodes in Welsh football history. How did a team on its knees a few years earlier find itself in the quarter finals of a major European competition and come within a whisker of a semi-final clash with mighty Benfica. Jackson was on that trip himself and tells how Newport went to Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles, survived a frightening flight to a footballing outpost in Northern Norway and then an arduous journey across the West German border at the height of the Cold War, all to represent Wales in Europe.

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