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'Where I’ve been…you know these days are golden': Mickey Demetriou savours Newport County's FA Cup moment
Mickey Demetriou has a theory as to why Newport County have turned into the FA Cup’s favourite giant-killers.
“What we went through a few years back just to stay up and keep our livings makes all this seem easy in comparison,” he says. “People might say that our win over Leicester in the third round was a ‘miracle’. But that was just one game. Surviving when you’re 12 points adrift at the bottom of the entire league is a proper miracle’.”
Demetriou’s story neatly encapsulates this resurrection and not just because he now has the nickname of “The Phantom of the Opera” due to the face-mask he has recently been forced to wear after fracturing his cheekbone in the second round against Wrexham.
Here is a 28-year-old plucked from obscurity by Glenn Hoddle as a teenager yet who found himself without a professional contract three years ago. However, the defender refused to allow his ambition to die and when he lines up against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium in the fourth round on Saturday, he will savour the moment and attempt to devour the opportunity.
“Where I’ve been… well, you know these days are golden,” he said.
Demetriou is talking at Newport’s training ground, the grandly named “International Sports Village”. In the teamroom there are games of darts taking place and one of the apprentices mutters to me: ‘If Gareth Southgate was our gaffer he’d tell us to play you, as a PR stunt”.
Yet amid the banter and the laughter there is general air of shock as the players discuss the tragedy unfolding at their nearest professional club.
“That lad at Cardiff [Emiliano] Sala,” Demetriou says. “He was flying over here to join the Premier League, with everything ahead of him. And then he disappears of the radar. Just like that. It shows the fragility of life. You’ve got to enjoy it and never take it for granted. Like, when I was a youngster never thought I’d be doing this as a profession. Yeah, I dreamt I would, but I’m not sure I ever truly believed it. A lot of things had to go my way.”
Demetriou went through the age groups at his local club Worthing, before joining Bognor Regis Town. It was there where one of Hoddle’s scouts for the academy in Spain noticed him. “We were actually playing Worthing and the scout had come to look at one of their strikers,” he said.
“I was invited for a trial and got through but I was a bit different as that academy was supposed to be for lads who had been released by pro clubs. There were players such as Sam Clucas, who went on to appear in the Premier League with Swansea. It turned me into a pro and I have Glenn to thank. He took a chance on me. He didn't have to.
“He was really hands-on and I'm proud I had him coach me. I got to know him and texted him when he had that heart trouble recently. I think a lot about the advice he gave me, but I suppose what most sticks in my mind is to be confident on the ball and not to be afraid. I’m not sure where I’d be without that experience and grounding.”
Still, there was no magic pathway up the pyramid. Eastbourne introduced him to the delights of Conference, before three seasons at Kidderminster. The step up to the Football League came with Shrewsbury and everything was progressing nicely with promotion to League One. But there followed a knee injury which saw him play once in a year. He was released, yet at least there was the interest from Fleetwood.
“On the day I was going to sign I broke my foot in training. Suddenly, I had no wage coming in. I had a bit of money saved and had good family support, but I was 25, married and it was tough. Yeah, there were times when I wondered if that was it for me as a footballer, but in the January Graham Westley gave me a chance here.”
With Newport struggling near the foot of the table, there was no time for Demetriou to do anything other than hit the ground running.
“The trouble was the knee was still a concern, as was the foot and I’d hardly played. But there was no choice. When I joined I was told - as were many of the lads - that if we got relegated we wouldn’t be paid in the summer. Simple as that. Well, the results continued not to go our way, we got further and further from safety and we all realised that the state of the club’s finances meant that if we didn’t do something this place was going out of business. That’s when Mikey [Flynn] came in.”
Under the ultimate Newport stalwart, the great escape was on. “We won nine out of 12 games, four out of the last five, and it was amazing,” Demetriou says. “But we still knew we had to produce last season. We were told that a good Cup run was needed just to help pay the wages and in a way, getting to the fourth round by beating Leeds and then drawing with Spurs to get the replay at Wembley was more important than if we’d been promoted. It gave the club some security.”
Financial security is one thing but as a footballer, Demetriou cannot help but recall Harry Kane’s 82nd minute equaliser with a wince.
“He’s one of the great footballers and we basically gave him a goal. Leicester also equalised in the 82nd minute this time around and I thought ‘oh, no, not again’. But we got the pen and now we are going to Middlesbrough, another huge club. The underdog role seems to suit us. There is still a core of us who went through that great escape and who look at each other and think nothing is beyond us.”
Yet again there is more riding on it for Demetriou than a mere result. “My contract is up in the summer and I suppose I am playing for my living again. I have Aimee [his wife] and little Theo [their 17-month-old son] at home and there is pressure, yes. But I’ve learnt that I thrive on it and wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s what this club is all about, it’s what football is all about.”