I changed my own MB battery from around the same generation and bumped into a similar experience. What worked for me was disconnect the battery cable from the board and then plug it in again, try again. Failed. Disconnect from board, wait a minute or two, plug it in again, try again. Failed. Eventually after what seemed like about 8 rounds of this, it worked and has been fine since (actually "like new" with very impressive battery life).
I have no idea why it took so many tries (the plug seems to accommodate the cable only 1 way and I could practically swear that it was plugged in right every time, nothing special about try #8) but about 8 was the charm.
You might also try a few other things like connecting power to see if the system shows battery being charged. That should be visual confirmation that battery is connected. If so, give it a while and then unplug power to see if battery takes over. Maybe your new battery is dead and letting it charge in MB for a while might resolve your problem.