JASON Bowen and Lee Jarman enjoyed a dream return to Ninian Park with both men delighted to knock out their former club.

Bowen, who scored a fantastic diving header to give County a 1-0 lead in extra-time, said: "It was a great result. It was nice to come back and play on a decent pitch again, I spent six years here and it was nice to get one over on them.

"The goal was a really good move. (Damon) Searle got to the byline and whipped in a great cross and I just managed to get my head on it. It was a great moment," he added.

"We'll give our all in the final, as we always try to do, and hopefully we can bring the cup back to Newport."

Jarman scored County's last penalty before Glyn Thompson saved from Jack Carlile to clinch victory in the shootout and the former Bluebird was on cloud nine after the game.

"It was a dream ending. I scored the winning penalty and it couldn't have gone much better for me," he said.

"It was a hell of a save from Glyn and it was jubilation for us and the fans.

"It was important after Saturday's performance that we bounced back and we've put that to bed now.

"Sunday's game against Lewes is massive and we'll get huge confidence from tonight's result. All season we've taken two steps forward and one step back so I'm just hoping that we can get a win on Sunday with a big crowd behind us and get the promotion bid back on track."

Cardiff City reserve team coach Paul Wilkinson was less than generous in his assessment, claiming his young side deserved a victory.

"I thought we controlled the game and created enough chances to win it," he said. "But we didn't take the chances and we paid for it in the end in the ultimate cruel way.

"It was always going to be difficult, Newport are a difficult team to play against. They're well organised and they were up for it but I think we did enough to win."