Sport
Newport County fans hold up a jokey sign mocking Marcus Rashford after night out controversy
Not many of us get caught pulling a sickie and then have a load of people broadcast it on live telly.
Danny Jones -
29th January 2024 
A group of Newport County fans went viral during this weekend’s FA Cup tie against Manchester United after their comedic sign mocking Marcus Rashford and his night out controversy was caught by the cameras.
Man United managed to progress to the next round of the FA Cup following a 4-2 win away at Newport, despite making hard work of it, but one of the standout moments of the night turned out to be the small group of home supporters who got very creative with their sign-making skills on Sunday night.
Just a day after the news broke that Rashford had been dropped from the squad following a cheeky and unsanctioned night out in Belfast — one which he lied about and claimed illness — the South Wales supporters did their best to make light of the situation.
As caught on the BBC’s live feed and by various other broadcasters, the Newport fans jokingly asked, “Rashford can we have your week’s wages?” ahead of his inevitable fine. The Metro has reported that he is set to be fined around £650,000, i.e. two week’s worth of wages.
Fair play, you’ve got to laugh at that — hopefully, Rashford’s had a sense of humour about it too.
You can also always rely on Newport fans to have a laugh; we still watch the video of that ‘I’ve conquered all the chippies’ chant at least once every couple of months and it never gets old.
As for Rashford himself, the United and England star has yet to address the situation but was obviously left out of the matchday squad after footage and images on the night out in Northern Ireland began circulating online.
Meanwhile, when quizzed multiple times by reports on what action the club had taken, Erik ten Hag insisted that it is “an internal matter”, simply repeating, “I’ll deal with it”.
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It remains to be seen how big a deal this will turn out to be and what ramifications it will have on the relationship between the player and the United boss, but let’s just say Rashy isn’t the first person to try and pull a sickie.
However, there were some more wholesome scenes after the game as ten Hag also surprised Newport manager Graham Coughlan, a huge Red himself, with a bottle of wine.
The Dublin-born coach did joke that he’s more of a Budweiser man but he still graciously accepted.
You can watch the highlights of Newport County vs Manchester United down below:
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Featured Image — BBC Sport (screenshot)
