LAST-GASP goal hero Matty Dolan has warned his former club Middlesbrough that they will be in for a “tough night” at Rodney Parade in next week’s FA Cup fourth-round replay against Newport County AFC.

The Hartlepool-born midfielder, who started his career at Boro but was released in 2014 having never made a first-team appearance for his boyhood club, earned County a 1-1 draw on Saturday with a stoppage-time equaliser.

Before the match he admitted he had a point to prove to his former employer and he did it in style at the Riverside Stadium.

Dolan, who has been nursing a hamstring problem in recent weeks, had to wait until the 87th minute to enter the fray as a replacement for Mickey Demetriou.

County were trailing 1-0 after Daniel Ayala headed the hosts in front on 51 minutes and Antoine Semenyo had just missed a glorious chance to level when Dolan was introduced.

But he was in the right place to stroke the ball into the bottom corner after fellow sub Josh Sheehan’s cross dropped invitingly to him in the six-yard box deep into time added on.

“I’m still a bit in shock,” said the 25-year-old, who celebrated wildly in front of 1,200 travelling fans – including around 40 of his own friends and family.

“It was a pretty special moment for myself. But I think it was what we deserved in the end.

“Afterwards it was mayhem. It gave the fans something to celebrate. It was incredible scenes.

“It was magic at the end. It’s a long trip up for our fans and they came up in great numbers.

“Quite a lot of my mates are Newcastle fans, so I think I’ve made their weekend,” he added.

“A lot of them came down [from Hartlepool] and sat in with the Newport fans so it was nice to score a goal for them. It was a special occasion.

“I saw my dad bobbing about in his wheelchair and it was nice for him. He thoroughly enjoyed that moment – I saw a big smile on his face at the end, which was lovely.

“It’s a pretty special moment in my career – it’s right up there. And it’s massive for the club to get the replay.”

South Wales Argus:

Boro and boss Tony Pulis certainly won’t forget Dolan in a hurry.

“It’s very special,” said the midfielder. “Middlesbrough invested a lot of time in me as a young lad. I was here from the age of six right the way up to 21, so I spent a lot of time here but never really broke through.

“It’s obviously nice to play at the Riverside again and I topped it off with the goal.

“I was a bit disappointed not to start but I thought the lads were fantastic and once you go on you just hope to make an impact.

“The gaffer told me to get on and get myself a goal and thankfully I did that.

“We got exactly what we deserved,” he added. “It’ll be nice to take them back to Rodney Parade and make a game of it.

“And it’ll be a tough night for Boro. You only have to look at [our results against] Tottenham, Leeds and Leicester.”

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