From facing extinction to Manchester United: How Newport County rose from the dead
Newport County was the club that died.
The mourners had gathered in the symbolic venue of Lysaght Institute - where County had formed 77 years earlier - faced with a stark choice.
Either refund the £12,000 raised in a forlorn attempt to save it or use the money to start afresh in a leafy village of the Cotswolds, 85 miles away and in a division four tiers below the Football League.
David Hando, proposed as the first chairman of the newly formed AFC Newport, stood in front of 500 supporters and delivered an impassioned speech that will resonate through the ages in the South Wales city.
“We can do this,” he said.
“Don’t think it will be a quick fix. Some of us will not be around to see it. But we can do it. This city can do it.”
It was February, 1989 and the Hellenic League was awaiting the club’s response.
“When we went into that meeting, I’m not sure anyone thought we would become a league club again,” recalls John Relish, the legendary Newport player and manager who returned to lead the reborn club.
“But the feeling in that room was electric. I said a few words and David was amazing. None of it would have happened without him. The vote to carry on was unanimous and that meeting galvanised everyone.”
So began the herculean 35-year journey that would eventually see Newport reabsorb the County moniker in 1999, return to the league on a hyper-emotional afternoon at Wembley under Justin Edinburgh in 2013, and now - in another poignant new chapter in the ultimate Phoenix-from-the flames feelgood football tale - host a first meeting with Manchester United in Sunday’s fourth round FA Cup tie.
The Newport County story will resonate with all financially depressed football clubs; a gradual economic decline preceded the appearance of an American businessman with brash promises, preying on a city’s desperation.
Relish’s Newport career overlapped the old and new, experiencing the despair of the demise and the ecstasy of the regeneration as the team moved through the divisions and found its current home back in the city at Rodney Parade.
As is often the case, recollections of the darker days make the joy of fixtures like Sunday more life-affirming.
Relish had made 400 appearances and managed the original club when he foresaw the problems ahead in the mid-1980s.
“The big saviour turned out to be a conman”
“I knew things were getting tough because all the best players were sold and wages were getting paid later and later,” he recalled.
“You could tell that things were not right. I really wanted to stay but had the chance to work for the PFA and did not want to be the manager telling people there were no wages. The club soldiered on for a while until the American businessman Jerry Sherman turned up. He was going to be the big saviour and turned out to be a conman. He ended up in jail in the United States. It was so obvious he wasn’t right but people were taken in. Supporters want to believe so much that money is coming in and some of these business people are saviours. Sadly, that can sometimes mean you are halfway to being conned.
“I couldn’t bear to watch it as it all unfolded. I’d been there 13 years as a player. The last thing I wanted to see was the club dying.”
They were selling black armbands alongside the stadium floodlights on that fateful extinction day, artefacts of a distinguished history including £360 for a trophy gifted from East German opponent Carl Zeiss Jena to immortalise a European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final appearance in 1981, and £40 for the sign above the manager’s door.
With gallows humour, the memorial armbands cost £1.74. The overall funds fell well short of the £330,000 needed to avoid bankruptcy.
“When I got the call to help with the idea of a new team I wanted to be involved,” says Relish.
“Where we got lucky was we had so many good players in the Newport area - lads who were far better than the level we started in. We would take 600 fans to every game in this twee little town Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire.
‘A community united in its purpose’
“For our first game I remember there being a huge police presence as they worried about all these coaches coming in from Newport. By the next game the police had gone and we formed a fantastic relationship with the people of the town who welcomed us. I think we were great for the local businesses.”
The Newport ‘Exiles’ - the nickname has stuck - became a community united in its purpose to ensure the legacy of the old club was preserved, and ambitions of future generations emboldened.
Those whose names are synonymous with the first incarnation of Newport County have watched on with pride at being associated with a history now elevated by the club’s resurrection.
Among the most famous former players, John Aldridge’s social media page enthusiastically references his Newport links alongside that of Liverpool, Oxford, Tranmere Rovers, Real Sociedad and the Republic of Ireland, his weekly updates testimony to his affection for the club that gave him his break in league football.
“Like all my former clubs, they are embedded in my heart,” says Aldridge, who was one of the bargains of the century in 1979 when he moved to South Wales from semi-professional South Liverpool for £3,500.
“I was earning £110 as an apprentice tool-fitter and signed for Newport for £78 on a one-year contract,” he laughs ironically, given the footballing heights that deal preceded.
“From day one the people there looked after me and I loved the place. I’m from Garston, a humble part of Liverpool, and there were similarities in Newport . It was an area that had been neglected by the government at the time, but the people were immensely proud of where they came from and kept working in difficult situations to make life better. When I think of Newport, I think of good, honest people. They have been through tough times but when you know their character, it is part of the reason why they never gave up on their football club and so many put in such a tremendous effort to get it back where it is.”
Alongside another Newport legend of Liverpool heritage - Tommy Tynan - Aldridge formed a deadly partnership in the club’s golden era, a Welsh Cup win, promotion to the third tier of English football and the European Cup Winners’ Cup run camouflaging the serious financial issues afoot.
“Tommy was as selfish as me in front of goal so I’m not sure if there were many assists between the two of us,” laughs Aldridge.
“It felt like we were in the big time when we were in Europe.
“Amazing work by great people to get club back on track”
“When the club reformed it felt like I had my old club and a huge part of my career back.
“When you play for a club you are always looking out for them. To lose the name was like losing the identity for the fans. They regrouped and what a story to get it back on track. There has been amazing work by great people to get it back on track.
“The money and the exposure they will get from this tie - these are the fixtures that show why the cup is so important for the lower league clubs.”
The sense of achievement and pride will surely mean that Hando, who passed away last year having been honoured as life president, and Relish will be immortalised with a club statue one day.
“I’ve started a fundraiser for mine,” says Liverpool-born Relish, laughing uproariously at the idea.
“I’ve got £25 so far. But it’s my own money!
“You know what. Seriously, my hope is that fans of other clubs, clubs like Bury, can see us and realise that all is not lost.
“Don’t get me wrong, there were days after when we all thought we were never going to get there, missed promotions and the like, but that day at Wembley in 2013 when Justin Edinburgh took the club back was amazing.
“And to be now playing Manchester United for the first time… it is incredible, really. I know it sounds glib sometimes to talk about the magic of the cup, but when a tie comes out like this, what else can you call it?”
The major fundraising on Sunday is a payday for the United tie worth an estimated £400,000.
Newport County are no longer the club that died. They are the club that lived.
