I don't think it is any secret that I believe Newport County can and should do better. Some time ago on another thread I opined that if you look at size of town, demographics, wealth of area etc, we should aspire to be competing with the likes of Swansea, Preston and Huddersfield. In fact I stated that even down to having a prominent rugby team the town to which we were most alike was Huddersfield.

Now the usual reasons were trotted out. Namely that Huddersfield were a big club, great history and as such were bound to be far better supported and to achieve far more than we ever could. Today, to pass an idle hour I looked at an old programme from 1979/80. A year in which both ourselves and Huddersfield were promoted from the old Division Four. Specifically I went back to Tuesday 18th September 1979, our visitors that night at Somerton Park were Northampton Town.

Two snippets from that night's programme. Page 14 has the League table. Newport County's record as we kicked of was...

P 6 W 3 D 0 L 3 F 9 A 8 Pts 6 Which put us in 10th position.

Huddersfield' s record up until then was...

P 6 W 4 D 1 L 1 Which put our Terrier friends in 5th position.

Now page 15 of the programme showed our fixture and results up until Saturday 15th September. This is where it gets interesting.

On Saturday 15th September we were at home to Bradford City and watched by a crowd of 4,089. Of whom I was one. However on Saturday 8th September away at Huddersfield we were watched by the staggeringly high crowd of 3,134. I wasn't there in fairness.

In other words mid table Newport County were being watched by a crowd 25% greater than Huddersfield who after only six game, when it was only twp points for a win were three points clear of County.

If Huddersfield can do it, so can we.

Still looking at old programmes. Five games, four at Somerton, between 25th October and 8th November 1980.
Huddersfield Home won 3-2
Fulham Home won 2-1
Blackpool Away won 4-2
Haugar Home won 6-0
Hull City Home won 4-0

Played five won five. Goals for 19, goals against 5. Average home attendance in the four home games. 6,695.

For those of you who don't remember 1980 was a year when football attendances generally were at an all time low and Newport was a town laid waste by the mass unemployment of the brutal Thatcher regime.

Brendan, you shouldn’t do this. Those of a certain age see those games as part of our European tour year. I’ll get all misty eyed in a minute. Haugar I think were from Norway. I think we played Crusaders as well, then on to some obscure place in East Germany, forget the name.

Memories aside, I get your point. Can’t ever remember you drawing a parallel with the Terriers though, I maybe wrong on that one though.

Those were brutal years for the country and the town as it was then. It does seem quite strange that the County flourished in those years. Never thought of it before but we had our best years under the Milk Snatcher.

We were in the European Cup winners Cup. Newport Council had just sold us Somerton Park as the club could get grants to put in the necessary fencing and terracing, that the Council couldn't provide as landlord, it was just too much of a burden. It led ultimately to our downfall. I don't think anyone would have done any different, however it was a commitment on our part just to big, and we couldn't finance.

Hi Mike,

To make you even more misty eyed, the programme I was looking at was the Boxing Day game v Swindon. We lost 2-0. The team that day (According to the programme.)

Kendall
Vaughan
Relish
Davies
Oakes
Tynan
Elsey
Lowndes
Gwyther
Aldridge
Moore.

With that team we would be in the Championship now. We very nearly did it a year or so later (L2) anyway. At my age I sometimes wonder if we will ever see those heights again. I did appreciate it at the time after the previous mediocre years. Anyway, I digress, back on topic.

No reason why we can’t target the championship with the right structure. A city of our size should be capable of that.

Absolutely we could and absolutely we should. As for an earlier post saying that we overextended ourselves with terracing and fencing in our glory years, in my approximate 40 years of watching football there I honestly can’t remember any significant improvements at Somerton apart from a lick of paint and a fence and some gravel at the railway end. A local builder could have done it for a couple of quid I would have thought. Perhaps they lashed out on disinfectant blocks for the urinals behind the popular bank - but I think I may have noticed if we had.

When I went for the first time in 1969 some or maybe all the terracing between the stand and the Cromwell end was railway sleepers on cinders.

lowandhard wrote: May 19th, 2022, 7:01 pm Absolutely we could and absolutely we should. As for an earlier post saying that we overextended ourselves with terracing and fencing in our glory years, in my approximate 40 years of watching football there I honestly can’t remember any significant improvements at Somerton apart from a lick of paint and a fence and some gravel at the railway end. A local builder could have done it for a couple of quid I would have thought. Perhaps they lashed out on disinfectant blocks for the urinals behind the popular bank - but I think I may have noticed if we had.

There's very little point trying to argue with rent-a-gob. He has an excuse for everything, and an insult for every occasion. If you look at the four English clubs I cite in my example above, Fulham are in the process of major stadium works. Blackpool have totally revamped Bloomfield Rd and notwithstanding Newport County would kill for a stadium such as Leeds Rd or Boothferry Park both Hull City and Huddersfield Town now play at brand new stadiums.

Will that stop the ever open mouth spouting nonsense about owning Somerton Park causing County's demise? The example of our erstwhile opponents would seem to suggest it was our failure to develop a stadium that was the real issue.

It was at the railway end, which was cinder banking, with Force for Fitness advertised in paint on the concrete panel fence.
Thanks to the Hasel stadium disaster, County had to concrete terrace the railway end, install crowd barriers, and caging. As did Merthyr before playing Atalanta.

In the refurbished market arcade, there is a photographic exhibition of pictures of Newport. One of the pictures shows the rear of the goal at the railway end of Somerton Park. Possibly taken from the railway bridge in the 1970's.
Directly behind the goal netting is a pile of earth and carpets. The speedway track used to cut across the corners of the pitch, and on match days they had to cover the gravel track with earth and lay a carpet in order to take corners.

It's a great picture, but the one I liked the most, was a group of kids lying down on the floor of a shop, watching a display of TV's.

Bangitintrnet wrote: May 19th, 2022, 7:45 pm It was at the railway end, which was cinder banking, with Force for Fitness advertised in paint on the concrete panel fence.
Thanks to the Hasel stadium disaster, County had to concrete terrace the railway end, install crowd barriers, and caging. As did Merthyr before playing Atalanta.

Force for fitness wasn't an advertisement. It was a motto put up to inspire the team. I believe although I'm not sure it was put there on the instruction of Colin Addison. More than happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Before we played our season in Europe, UEFA instructed County to put up barriers and indeed the work commenced. However the club made representations to the authorities that it was English clubs who were liable for these barriers because of the behaviour of English fans and we were Welsh. UEFA relented but certainly in 80/81 a few metal poles remained in front of the covered terrace adjacent to the railway end.

I don't know why the cages at the railway end were put up in the mid 1980's. I doubt it was at the insistence of EUFA after the Heysel stadium disaster. That took place in May 1985, more than four years after County's final game in Europe in March 1981.

lowandhard wrote: May 19th, 2022, 7:01 pm Absolutely we could and absolutely we should. As for an earlier post saying that we overextended ourselves with terracing and fencing in our glory years, in my approximate 40 years of watching football there I honestly can’t remember any significant improvements at Somerton apart from a lick of paint and a fence and some gravel at the railway end. A local builder could have done it for a couple of quid I would have thought. Perhaps they lashed out on disinfectant blocks for the urinals behind the popular bank - but I think I may have noticed if we had.

Nah, there were never any disinfectant blocks put in those bogs. The flies would have noticed and they didn’t. They were the biggest flies I have ever seen in my life.

On a serious note, I can never remember any significant improvements made to SP at all. The only minor improvements (if you can call it that) was for the speedway. They cut off a triangle on each corner of the pitch about 5ft from each side for the speedway and replaced it with matting for the football the following day. That, and the fact that they changed the starting gate from one side of the ground to the other. Never figured out why.

Somerton Park was a shit hole but I enjoyed going there. Have many, many great memories of the place but it was never developed in any way, shape or form. I know we are 40 years after the event but if we apply modern H&S principles there was a disaster there waiting to happen. The steps going up to Somerton Road from the ground were a death trap. The incline was stupid. How there was not an incident there I do not know. It was worse going out of the ground when everyone was trying to go home.

Force for fitness wasn't an advertisement. It was a motto put up to inspire the team. I believe although I'm not sure it was put there on the instruction of Colin Addison. More than happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Force was a brand of Scottish oats, and it was the motto on the box.

Correction : They were American wheat flakes.

Also the Rooster on Kelloggs Cornflakes is there because Kelloggs is a corruption of Ceiliog, the Welsh for Rooster, as the founder of the company was from Wales.

Bangitintrnet wrote: May 19th, 2022, 9:12 pm Force for fitness wasn't an advertisement. It was a motto put up to inspire the team. I believe although I'm not sure it was put there on the instruction of Colin Addison. More than happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Force was a brand of Scottish oats, and it was the motto on the box.

Correction : they were American wheat flakes.

Also the Rooster on Kelloggs Cornflakes is there because Kelloggs is a corruption of Ceiliog the Welsh for Rooster, as the founder of the company was from Wales.

Ah yes I remember it well. Machine's of Aberdeen if memory serves. They also made industrial cleaner as I recall. Best Universal Grit, Grime and Effluent Remover. Their slogan was up at the Cromwell end. If Daz won't whiten it and Brillo won't brighten it, then BUGGER it.

Some people will come out with any old bollox.