Brighton boss Graham Potter has no complaints about facing Manchester City on Wednesday after 120 minutes of FA Cup football on a difficult Rodney Parade surface.
The Seagulls needed penalties to beat League Two high-fliers Newport and reach the fourth round of the competition with a first win since November 21.
Back-up goalkeeper Jason Steele saved four penalties in a dramatic shoot-out, Brighton winning the spot-kick contest 4-3 after the tie had finished 1-1.
Steele’s heroics boosted Brighton before tough Premier League trips to City and Leeds this week, but victory was not sealed until 10.30pm on Sunday night.
“We’ll have to recover, that’s life,” Potter said after a tie that only went ahead because a dome cover was brought in to protect the pitch against freezing conditions in south Wales.
“That’s what we’ll do now before the game at Man City.
“It is what it is. That’s the competition. We can’t complain about it, we knew it was going to be a tough week.
“But it was important that we go through, to progress and show that ambition.
“We wanted to go through and we’re in the hat for the draw.”
“We wanted to get three results if we could, we’ve got the first one and now we need to prepare for Man City away.”
South Africa foward Percy Tau made a belated Brighton debut after joining the club in July 2018.
The 26-year-old has had three different loan spells in Belgium and, having been recalled from Anderlecht last week, came on as a 71st-minute substitute at Newport.
Potter said: “He did well. We’ll get to know him better and he’ll get to know us better.
“He contributed well and I was pleased with his performance and contribution.”
Newport, second in League Two, return to action at home to Salford on Saturday and have promotion on their minds.
“We’ve got until Tuesday morning to get over it,” manager Michael Flynn said of his side’s painful defeat.
“If they’re not over it by then they can go back home.
“We’ve got 26 cup finals in this league to finish off a season which has had so much promise.
“Let’s make sure we’ve got something at the end of it.”
