MANAGER Graham Coughlan admitted Newport County AFC “got out of jail” with a 1-1 draw against Barnet in the FA Cup.

The Exiles face a replay for a spot in the third round of the famous competition after being pegged back at the death at Rodney Parade.

Shane McLoughlin’s strike just before half-time looked set to be the winner but then the National League promotion hopefuls levelled when Daniele Collinge headed in after 88 minutes.

“We are still in the cup,” said Coughlan. “We had chances to put the game to bed but we didn’t, they were better than us and we got out of jail.

“They put us under pressure and started the game right – their mentality was right and ours wasn’t.

“We had a long week while they had the week off; they were fresh and we weren’t but they also looked after the ball better than us.

“We kept turning the ball over and giving it away, we were very flat and tired and paid the ultimate penalty at the end of the game.

“It was just a little bit of pressure and the lads should be able to deal with that and head balls clear from set pieces.

“We were poor with the ball, okay and organised without it, and we got away with one let’s be honest.

“It was a real stern test and we won’t be that bad when it comes to the next game at their place. We weren’t good today.

“Barnet deserved their late leveller and asked a lot of questions of us; we feel a tad unfortunate that we didn’t put the game to bed and they will feel unfortunate that they didn’t create more and ask questions of our goalie.”

County are set to travel to Barnet in between their League Two fixtures against Tranmere and Grimsby.

They will learn their potential round-three opponents in the draw tomorrow afternoon, live on ITV.