JUSTIN Edinburgh believes a trip to Cheltenham Town in the first round of the FA Cup would be exciting for supporters, but after Saturday’s great escape against minnows Yate he’s taking nothing for granted.

A trip to last season’s beaten League Two playoff finalists awaits the winner of tomorrow night’s replay at Rodney Parade following a pulsating 3-3 draw at Lodge Road.

League leaders Newport looked down and out at 3-1 down, only to rescue the tie at the death against a side bottom of a division three below the Conference.

Tony James’ header deep into injury time capped an unlikely fightback and Edinburgh as such is taking nothing for granted.

“Cheltenham would be an exciting tie for our fans,” he explained.

“It’s an attractive game even though we’d have preferred a home game because we want to progress as far as we can.

“But after Saturday we know we can’t even afford to think ahead because we are lucky to still be in the competition.

“Yate will have a lot of belief and we will need to be a lot more like we know we can be.”

Edinburgh was unhappy with the performance and admitted makeshift defenders Max Porter and Lee Minshull had a rough time in the absence of injured trio David Pipe, Andrew Hughes and Ismail Yakubu.

“We were careless and lethargic in the final third in the first half, we should have had the game dead and buried,” he said.

“It just goes to show that if you don’t take your chances and take advantage of your possession how things like the second half can come back and haunt you.

“We can make no excuses.

“We didn’t want a replay but the way we’ve played we’ll take what we’ve got.”

Edinburgh is hopeful he’ll have at least two of his three injured defenders available tomorrow.