| Full name | Newport County Association Football Club |
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| Nickname(s) | The Exiles, The Ironsides, The Port, The County | ||
| Founded | 1912 (reformed 1989) | ||
| Ground | Newport Stadium, Newport NP19 4PT (Capacity: 5,500 including 3,300 seated) |
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| Chairman | Chris Blight | ||
| Manager | Justin Edinburgh | ||
| League | Conference National | ||
| 2010–11 | Conference National, 9th (of 24) | ||
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| Current season | |||
Newport County Association Football Club are a professional football club based in the city of Newport, south Wales, who currently play in the Conference National, the highest level of the National League System and fifth highest of the overall English football league system. Founded in 1912 the club were founder members of the Football League's new Third Division in 1920.
Newport County were Welsh Cup winners in 1980 and subsequently reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup. The club was relegated from the Football League in 1988 and went out of business in February 1989. The club re-formed shortly afterwards and entered the English league pyramid system at a much lower level. The club achieved promotion to the Conference National for the 2010–11 season, the same level they played at prior to bankruptcy in 1989.
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Newport County,[1] originally nicknamed "The Ironsides" due to Newport being home to John Lysaght's steel works,[2] started out in the Southern League in 1912 at Somerton Park.[3] The official name of the club was The Newport & Monmouth County Association Football Club, although the shorter Newport County was soon adopted.[3] The club were reformed in 1919[4] and were first elected to the Football League in 1920. They were not re-elected after the 1930–31 season but rejoined for 1932–33.[3] After almost twenty years in the Third Division South, the club finally clinched promotion to the Second Division as champions in 1939.[3]
Hopes were high that the championship-winning side could prosper in the Second Division, but only three games were played of the 1939–40 season due to the outbreak of World War II. Newport County managed a 1–1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur and a 3–1 win over Southampton, finishing joint 9th out of 22 in the abandoned season.[5] The War League operated for the remainder of the 1939–40 season and County finished 10th in the South-West Division.
On the resumption of national league football after the war, the club reformed[4] but did not fare so well as a re-shaped team suffered a host of defeats – including a joint Football League record 13–0 defeat at Newcastle United. Newcastle player Len Shackleton remarked "they were lucky to get nil". Despite victories over Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday and Fulham, the club needed four wins out of the last four games to have any hope of safety. Despite a revenge victory over Newcastle United, defeats to Birmingham City, Luton Town and Manchester City sealed their fate. County finished rock bottom of Division 2 and were relegated. However, during this lean period Newport did reach the 5th round of the FA Cup in 1949, the furthest they have gone in the competition. They only narrowly lost the game 3–2 away to Portsmouth, the eventual FA Cup semi-finalists and First Division champions that season.[6]
After eleven further seasons in the Third Division South, the club narrowly avoided another effective relegation with the creation of the Fourth Division for the 1958–59 season. The bottom twelve teams from the Third Division North and South were placed in the new division, with the remainder forming the revived Third Division. County avoided this fate by a mere four points. However, in 1962, with only seven wins all season, the club were relegated to the Fourth Division — their home for the next 18 years.
In the 1959–60 season, County were drawn with Tottenham Hotspur – a top English side – in the FA Cup third round. The game was played in heavy snow at White Hart Lane, and although County lost 4–1 their goal came from an incredible 35-yard effort by Ken Hollyman. This forced the score-line to 1–2, giving County the hope that they could force an upset and inflict a replay or even defeat upon Bill Nicholson's men (who were double winners a year later). However, two late goals for Tottenham ended County's hopes of pulling off a shock result.[7]
In January 1964, County took on another high-profile side – Burnley, the 1960 Division One champions and 1962 double runners-up – in the FA Cup fourth round, but again suffered defeat.
In the 1970–71 season Newport set an unwanted Football League record by not winning any of their first 25 matches. In the same season Newport equalled the worst defeat of a Football League club by a non-league club when they lost 6–1 to Barnet in the FA Cup First Round. Results improved in the following season and in the 1972–73 season the Newport team managed by Billy Lucas missed out on promotion only on goal average.
The 1980s heralded both the brightest and darkest moments in Newport County's history. Len Ashurst was manager from 1978–1982, the club's most successful period in its history and under the Chairmanship of Richard Ford. In 1980, promotion was finally achieved from the Football League Fourth Division, the club being only five points from being crowned champions. County sealed promotion in the last match of the season with a 4–2 win at high-flying Walsall. Walsall finished second in the league and were also promoted.
The team included a young John Aldridge who later became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in English football history, most famous for helping Liverpool win the First Division title in 1988 and FA Cup in 1989, as well as helping Oxford United win two successive promotions and the Football League Cup.
Also in the promotion-winning team was Tommy Tynan, one of the leading lower-league strikers of his era, who scored the all-important goal that sealed County's promotion.[7] Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan went on to attain international caps for Wales. This was also the year that County won the Welsh Cup, entitling them to play in the 1980–81 season European Cup Winners' Cup.
The cup run turned out to be quite eventful — the first round against Crusaders of Northern Ireland was won 4–0 on aggregate (4–0 at home and 0–0 away). The second round against SK Haugar of Norway was even more convincing: after a 0–0 draw away, the home leg was won 6–0, taking the club into the quarter finals against Carl Zeiss Jena F.C. of East Germany. Despite Aldridge being injured for both matches against Carl Zeiss Jena, the quarter-final away leg was drawn 2–2, with Tommy Tynan scoring both goals. Tynan's equaliser was in the 90th minute. However, despite dominating the home leg, Newport lost 1–0 in front of 18,000 fans at Somerton Park. Carl Zeiss Jena went on to be the eventual cup runners-up, losing the final to Dinamo Tbilisi of the Soviet Union.
The Newport County squad for the home leg was: 1 Gary Plumley, 2 Richard Walden, 3 John Relish, 4 Grant Davies, 5 Keith Oakes (Captain), 6 Tommy Tynan, 7 Nigel Vaughan, 8 Steve Lowndes, 9 Dave Gwyther, 10 Karl Elsey, 11 Kevin Moore, 12 Neil Bailey, 13 Steve Warriner, 14 Dave Bruton, 15 Bobby Ward, 16 Mark Kendall.
In the 1982–83 season Colin Addison, in his second spell as manager, led Newport County to their highest post-war league finish – just four points behind third-placed Huddersfield Town in the Third Division. Huddersfield were promoted to the Second Division, along with champions Portsmouth and local rivals Cardiff City. County had actually gone top of the table in early April after a win over Cardiff in front of 16,052 fans at Somerton Park, but a return of only four points from the last seven games meant County missed out on promotion. County faced First-Division team Everton in the third round of the 1982–83 FA Cup. After a 1–1 draw at Newport, Everton won the replay 2–1.
Newport appeared in the Welsh Cup final again in 1987, this time losing 1–0 to Merthyr Tydfil after a replay.
The decade ended in a rather less glamorous way. County were relegated from the Third Division in 1987 and in 1988 finished bottom of the Fourth Division with a mere 25 points, meaning that their 68-year stay in the Football League was over. They failed to finish their first season in the Conference and finally went out of business on 27 February 1989 with debts of £330,000. They were then expelled from the Conference for failing to fulfil their fixtures. Their record (four wins, seven draws and 19 points from 29 games) was expunged.
The BBC Wales current-affairs programme Week In Week Out broadcast a documentary in 1989 about the winding up of Newport County and its controversial owner at the time, American Jerry Sherman.[8]
In June that year, the club was reformed and elected to the Hellenic League (four divisions below the Football League). Since then, the club's main aim has been to regain the Football League status lost in 1988.
The new club adopted the nickname "The Exiles", as a result of the need to play their inaugural season in the north Gloucestershire town of Moreton-in-Marsh at which venue they won the Hellenic 'League and Cup double', winning promotion to the Southern League.[3] After two seasons back home in Newport at Somerton Park, football politics consigned them to a further two seasons of exile at Gloucester and the club was forced to resort to legal action to protect themselves from being forced out of the English football pyramid by the Football Association of Wales.[9] That litigation proved successful, a landmark High Court verdict enabling them to have a permanent home in Newport at the then newly-built Newport Stadium. The club's first season back in Newport, in 1994–95, saw them promoted to the Southern League Premier Division by winning the Midland Division Championship by a 14-point margin; on the way to that championship, the club set a then Southern League record by winning 14 successive league matches.[3]
In the 2001–02 season the team managed by Tim Harris reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time since the club was reformed, drawing Second Division side Blackpool. Holding them to a 2–2 draw away,[10] County lost the home replay 4–1 after extra time.[11] The following season, then managed by Peter Nicholas, Newport reached the final of the FAW Premier Cup beating Swansea City and Cardiff City along the way before losing 6–1 in the final against Wrexham.
Subsequent reorganisation of the upper divisions of non-league football saw County take their place in the inaugural season of Conference South, one of the two feeder divisions into the Football Conference.
Peter Beadle was appointed manager in October 2005 and in the 2006–07 season Newport again reached the first round proper of the FA Cup but lost 3–1 to fellow Welsh side Swansea City. In the same season, Newport reached the final of the FAW Premier Cup for the second time, beating Wrexham along the way but losing 1–0 to TNS in the final. 2006–07 also saw an improvement in league form by Newport with the team consistently in the top half of the league and challenging for a playoff place (top 5), having one of the best home records in the league. In the end, Newport finished just one position below the playoffs after losing 2–1 to Cambridge City on the final day of the season.
In the 2007–08 season, Newport won what may be the last-ever FAW Premier Cup beating Llanelli 1–0 in the final, making a total of one win out of three finals. For the second consecutive season a last-day defeat prevented County reaching the Conference South playoffs. In April 2008 Peter Beadle was sacked as club manager, and was replaced by Dean Holdsworth.
In his first full season in charge, Holdsworth led Newport to a 10th place finish in the league for the 2008–09 season.[12] Newport went top of the league in September of the 2009–10 season and held onto the top spot for the rest of the season. The league title was won in March 2010 after beating Havant and Waterlooville 2–0 at Newport Stadium with seven league games remaining. The win made them the first team in the English football leagues to achieve promotion in the 2009–10 season.[13] County finished the season with a Conference South record 103 points, 28 ahead of nearest rivals Dover Athletic. They were promoted to the Conference National for the 2010–11 season, the level they played at prior to bankruptcy in 1989. Holdsworth left Newport County to become team manager of Football League Two team Aldershot Town on 12 January 2011 with Newport County in fifth place in the Conference National table. Tottenham Hotspur reserve team coach Anthony Hudson was announced as the new manager on 1 April 2011.[14] The team finished their first season back in the Conference National league in 9th place.
After a poor start to the 2011–12 season where County picked up just a single win out of the first 12 games, Hudson was sacked on 28 September. His replacement Justin Edinburgh was announced as manager on 4 October.[15]
Newport County draws its main support from the city of Newport but also the wider surrounding historic Monmouthshire area, as reflected in the original club name of Newport & Monmouth County A.F.C. The club's supporters refer to themselves as the 'Amber Army' in reference to the traditional club colour, and the sporting colours more widely associated with Newport. Newport County have a historic rivalry with Cardiff City, and to a lesser extent Swansea City, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers but since 1989 Newport County have rarely encountered these clubs. Since 2009 the club has operated the popular and successful Amberline internet commentary service for supporters, although as of November 2010 the service has been temporarily suspended. The supporters' unofficial anthem is 'Come on the County', originally released in 1973 and written by Ken Buck and Eric Thomas. The song was re-recorded in 1999 to mark the tenth anniversary of the formation of the new club.
Newport County established Hartridge Football Academy in 1998 in partnership with Newport City Council[16] and the club has a youth development programme with around 50 students. The team competes in the South West Counties League and in the 2001–02 season County's youngsters won the English Schools' Football Association under-19 Trophy under the banner of Hartridge High School.[17] In the 2004–05 season they won the FAW Youth Cup. A number of the Academy graduates have progressed to the senior squad.
Original club:
Since reformation in 1988:
[26] Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Record league appearances
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For all Newport County players with a Wikipedia article see Category:Newport County A.F.C. players.
The following players have played for Newport County and gone on to be inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame:
The following players have received full international caps while playing for Newport County:
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The following players have received schoolboy international caps while playing for Newport County:
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The following players have received semi-pro international caps while playing for Newport County:
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