Newport manager Graham Coughlan has described hosting Manchester United in the FA Cup as the biggest game in the club’s history.

County booked a money-spinning fourth round date with the 12-time winners at Rodney Parade on January 28 by winning 3-1 at non-league Eastleigh on Tuesday.

The Sky Bet League Two outfit have become used to entertaining Premier League big guns in recent years, welcoming Manchester City and Tottenham among others, while the old Newport County played in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in the 1980s before going out of business.

But Dubliner Coughlan, a massive United fan who joked his family would be “doing Irish jigs around the house” after Newport beat Eastleigh, insisted the visit of Erik ten Hag’s side will top those occasions.

“It’ll be a hell of an occasion,” Coughlan told BBC Sport Wales ahead of the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.

“It’s a fourth round tie against Manchester United, for me the biggest club in this country, in Europe and in the world.

“I know some people would lean towards the fifth round game against Manchester City (in February 2019), but I’d say Manchester United all day long.”

Coughlan recalled before the Eastleigh replay how United had left him in tears as a four-year-old when Arsenal beat them 3-2 in the famous “Five-minute final” at Wembley in 1979.

Gordon McQueen and Sammy McIlroy had dragged United back into the game in the final few minutes before Alan Sunderland slid home at the death to win the FA Cup for Arsenal.

“We’re a big Manchester United family, we’ve been to FA Cup finals with them,” Coughlan said.

“I can’t get my head around it to be honest, they are unbelievable names.

“Just to have Manchester United coming to Rodney Parade is a hell of an achievement.

“I don’t know when it will sink in, I’m sure my family are doing Irish jigs around the house at the moment.”

Television coverage, fourth round prize money and a capacity crowd around the 10,000 mark means Newport stand to make around £400,000 from the United tie.

It is a welcome boost for the supporter-owned club who have encountered financial difficulties and are on the brink of being taken over by Huw Jenkins, the former Swansea chairman who took them into the Premier League.

Newport are due to increase capacity at Rodney Parade by starting work on a temporary stand on Wednesday.

The stand will be in place for Saturday’s sold out League Two clash with Welsh rivals Wrexham.

“Another 1,000 passionate members of the Amber Army will get the chance to back the Exiles against Wrexham and Manchester United with the erection of a temporary stand behind the North Terrace,” read a club statement.

“The club is also adding an additional 400 seats to the away stand to meet the FA’s allocation guidelines for the Manchester United tie.”

Graham Coughlan was delighted after his Newport side secured a money-spinning FA Cup fourth-round tie with boyhood club Manchester United thanks to a 3-1 replay win at Eastleigh.

After drawing 1-1 at Rodney Parade last time around, both clubs knew the prize on offer at the Silverlake Stadium.

Top scorer Paul McCallum pulled the fifth-tier Spitfires level after Aaron Wildig’s early opener.

But James Clarke and Will Evans ended the hosts’ fairytale run as dreams of a fourth-round debut against Erik ten Hag’s Red Devils were crushed.

Coughlan’s side will earn £400,000 due to the tie being picked for television coverage.

And the Exiles manager said: “It’s a dream come true.

“Personally, for me and my family, it is a hell of an honour. We’re a big Man United family, we’ve followed them through thick and thin.

“We’ve been to FA Cup finals with them, but that’s a story for another day.

“It means a lot to the football club but it means a lot to this group of players. This group of players have absolutely run through brick walls and they’ve put their bodies on the line since they’ve come in. I’m really proud of them.

“Let’s take nothing away from Eastleigh. They have taken the scalp of a League One team here already in Reading. I’m pretty sure they would have fancied doing a League Two side tonight so fair play to them.

“I hope to see them push on from tonight and I hope that they can get into the play-offs.

“This is a really good club with some great people at it. I don’t want to be unfair to Eastleigh but I think there were a few more moments of quality from ourselves.”

After seeing his side’s fine run ended, Eastleigh boss Richard Hill labelled it a “punch in the face”.

He said: “This will be a memory which lives for a while.

“Over the time I’ve been at the club, the three stints, looking back I always said the one game I’d want back is the Grimsby game back and in time this will be a game I’d like back again.

“The cup run’s been great. It’s brought a lot of exposure to the football club, it’s brought the fans out. The fans were brilliant, they deserve a lot of credit because they stuck with us until the end.

“I know I divide opinion with a lot of them, but I’ve got to thank them. They were brilliant.

“To look back on the cup run, beating Reading was great. But the prize for this was massive and that’s what hurts the most; what the prize could have been. Not just for me, or the players, but for the media and being around those players who would have been coming here.

“It would have been a great occasion for everything around the football club.

“Newport were bright, sharper and a little bit more streetwise on the night. They deserved the victory, you’ve got to give credit to them.”

Newport head coach Graham Coughlan believes his team learned their lesson as they defeated Vanarama National League side Barnet 4-1.

After conceding late at Rodney Parade in the first game, the south Wales outfit settled the replay by netting three times in the first 25 minutes.

The Sky Bet League Two club now host Eastleigh in the third round of the FA Cup, and Coughlan was pleased with the reaction of his side.

He said: “I think we learned from the first game. We got our tactics spot on.

“So all plaudits go to the lads for what they’ve done tonight, as that was a really tough game.

“Dean Brennan has got his team playing really well and with confidence, and they pass the ball really well.

“They’ve got some dangerous players and we knew it was going to be tough. But it was emphatic in the end.

“It just takes one incident, or one lack of concentration, to flip the game on its head. So it’s very difficult to relax.”

Newport took a fifth-minute lead when Omar Bogle crossed for Lewis Payne to fire home at the far post, before the two swapped roles eight minutes later when the 30-year-old netted.

The tie looked over after 25 minutes when Danny Collinge – whose late equaliser in the first tie earned the replay – headed past goalkeeper Laurie Walker from a Nick Townsend goal-kick and into his own net.

Barnet had a lifeline when they hit back in the 37th minute, after Harry Pritchard scored from close range – although replays showed he handled the ball.

Idris Kanu hit the bar from 25 yards out in the 66th minute, the hosts’ best chance of the second half.

But the impressive Seb Palmer-Houlden made sure of victory 10 minutes later when he ran through on a long ball and finished coolly – ending any thoughts of a home-side comeback.

Barnet manager Brennan believed such a poor opening was the death knell for the chances of his side.

He said: “Our defending in the first 25 minutes was kamikaze, you can’t go three down that quickly in a game of this magnitude.

“We managed to pull a goal back, and we were reaching for the second – we hit the crossbar, but the better team won.

“We never give in, maybe it was the class of the division above that was the difference. We haven’t got enough of that class.

“Their finishing was clinical, the fourth goal was a great counter-attack from them, and the third goal was just schoolboy stuff.

“The game is about both boxes – they defended their box better than we did.”

Newport manager Graham Coughlan praised his side for a “professional performance” as they beat Oldham 2-0 at Rodney Parade thanks to two goals from Shane McLoughlin to progress to the FA Cup second round.

The defender opened the scoring as he drilled into the bottom corner after 20 minutes and settled any late nerves with a second goal, a long-range piledriver, 10 minutes from time.

Coughlan is pleased to be in the hat for round two, but he admitted that it was not a game to live long in the memory for anyone other than McLoughlin.

“We got the job done,” said the Exiles boss. “We know how important the FA Cup to the history and tradition of this football club, not to mention the financial side of it.

“It’s probably best described as a good, solid, professional performance.”

Coughlan felt his side should have won more comfortably with Declan Drysdale going close on two occasions, Aaron Wildig seeing an effort cleared off the line and Omar Bogle failing to hit the target with several chances before McLoughlin settled the contest.

“I sound like a broken down record because we seem to have these conversations every week; we need to be more ruthless, more clinical in the final third,” said the Irishman.

“Nick Townsend pulled off two good saves for us as well. They tested us, they asked questions, and it was a tough afternoon.

“We’re really pleased to get through because Oldham are a good team with a good manager, and we’re happy with our afternoon’s work.”

Townsend denied Joe Nuttall with a superb save just before half-time and also prevented substitute Alex Reid from levelling on the hour, while James Norwood wasted an early chance after a poor back-pass from Scot Bennett.

Oldham boss Micky Mellon, taking charge of the Latics for only the fourth time, was disappointed by the quality of the match and by his side’s timid performance.

“We had an opportunity of trying to get a result in the FA Cup,” he said. “We’re a non-league team at the minute, but Newport weren’t going so great and it was an opportunity to show that fight and fire to try to get a result, but it was a very flat afternoon.

“There was little or no atmosphere, it was a bit dead. And we couldn’t string two passes together. We looked nervous, for some reason. I don’t know why, but we took too long to get going.

“We were lacking in qualities against a Football League club and we need to be better.

“We huffed and puffed a little bit in the second half, but, all in all, we went out with a whimper.”

Newport boss Graham Coughlan hailed a morale-boosting victory for his side as they fought back from a goal down to beat League One Charlton 3-1 in the Carabao Cup first round.

Daniel Kanu put the visitors ahead just before half-time, but second-half strikes from Aaron Wildig, Will Evans and Seb Palmer-Houlden sealed a second-round spot for the Exiles for the seventh successive season.

“I’m really pleased and I’m delighted for the lads,” said Coughlan, whose side were beaten 3-0 at Accrington on the opening day.

“They’ve had a tough couple of weeks. It’s not been easy.

“The fans were unbelievable tonight as well, even when we went 1-0 down, the way they got behind us.

“I’m trying to explain the club, the DNA and its principles to some of the new players, I don’t think I have to explain it after tonight. I think they’ve fully got it, and they know what the fans expect of them.”

Charlton boss Dean Holden questioned his players’ mentality after they allowed their fourth-tier opponents back into the game.

“We got ourselves into a good position with the goal just before half-time and we had them exactly where we wanted them until 60 minutes,” said the Addicks manager.

“We were 1-0 up and in complete control, complete dominance, but we didn’t have enough in the final third to take the game away from them.

“As comfortable as we were, there were too many errors. The goals were really poor. It was too easy for them to score. To end up losing 3-1 is really disappointing.

“There is potentially a mentality issue there. We need to stamp our authority on the game and take it away from them. But we didn’t do it and we got punished.”