Watford’s Carabao Cup involvement came to an end at Rodney Parade where they were beaten 3-1 by Newport County in the third round.

Adalberto Penaranda’s penalty halved a 2-0 advantage that the Exiles had built up in the first-half through goals from Tristan Abrahams and Joss Labadie, but Podraig Amond’s strike ten minutes later put the game beyond the Hornets’ reach.

Vladimir Ivic made wholesale changes for the cup once again, with the hero from the last round Daniel Bachmann starting in goal behind Derek Agyakwa, Craig Dawson and Francisco Sierralta in the centre of a back five, accompanied by Ignacio Pussetto and Toby Stevenson in the full-back positions.

Dan Phillips started in midfield with new signing James Garner, who picked up his first start for the club, and Joseph Hungbo, while Glenn Murray and Jerome Sinclair started up top.

The youngsters in the Hornets’ lineup had problems coping with the physicality of the occasion right from the off, with Hungbo committing three clumsy fouls within the first quarter-of-an-hour.

The opening goal of the game came following a similarly ungainly challenge from Sinclair out on the wing, with Stevenson tugging the shirt of a Newport player in the box from the resulting delivery. Bachmann was unable to recreate his heroics from the last round, with Abraham sending him the wrong way from the spot.

Newport grew in confidence after taking the lead and quickly set about finding a second.

Labadie forced a comfortable save from Bachmann from the edge of the area before Amond gave the goalkeeper much more to worry about with a header from Liam Shepherd’s whipped cross from the left that the Austrian did well to keep out.

However there was nothing Bachmann could do to deny Labadie’s next effort, with the captain curling into the top corner from 20 yards out, as the visitors’ inexperience really began to show.

Amond almost made it three less than five minutes later in the face of some accommodating defending from Agyakwa, who backed off enough for the striker to shoot just wide from the edge of the box.

There was little in the rest of the first-half to suggest Watford would get back into the game and again, they almost found themselves three down in stoppage time at the end of the first period when Abrahams nodded just wide from a Matty Dolan free-kick from the left.

Ivic made two changes at the break with Penaranda making his first appearance for the club since the second round of the competition last season against Coventry City, in which he scored, while Stipe Perica replaced Murray.

Penaranda put his name on the scoresheet again just nine minutes after his arrival following Shepherd’s trip on Pussetto in the box. The Venezuelan fired his spot kick straight down the middle and halved the deficit.

However, any brief hope of a comeback was all-but extinguished just after the hour mark when Amond made the most of a Phillips mistake to fire past Bachmann from just inside the area.

Few chances were created in the final 25 minutes, with Sinclair’s effort that flew over the bar the best the Hornets could muster, while Perica’s straight red card for an elbow right at the death rounded off a truly miserable evening in South Wales.