Somerton Park was demolished over 30 years ago, but at Christmas, Newport number two Mark Smith, ponders the County warriors he never met, who still fight on off the Chepstow Road writes Anthony Rees.
While his pals flashed MP3s, designer trainers and Nintendo 64s, Smith’s Yuletide centred on an Umbro Newport home shirt gifted by his steel-worker dad Andrew.
Malpas-raised Smith, 37, is one of the most acclaimed young coaches in British football and, who remains a director of the internationally established Fox Soccer Academy with centres across England, the USA and Austria. Since riding into Rodney Parade with Leicester City Premier League Title winner Christian Fuchs this autumn, life takes new priority.
Welshman Smith and former Austria skipper Fuchs are committed to picking a route away from League Two white-water for their Exiles – the pair hellbent on establishing a new chapter of positivity for Newport just over 12 years since the club escaped a National Conference to re-emerge back in the EFL.
County are rock-bottom of their section and wouldn’t have won a league match for 286 days at Rodney Parade prior to Barnet’s visit on Boxing Day.
Yet Smith is convinced brighter days are just around the corner – spiritual inspiration gleaned from his secret trips over to the sacred spot adjacent to the main London to south Wales trainline where Newport once battled relentless austerity to confound the doubters.
The Exiles’ old Somerton Park home is now a housing estate, of course. Yet peering across from an elevated path Smith sees a drizzled field with the shadows of past County heroes Tommy Tynan, Keith Oakes, Steve Lownes, Karl Elsey and Mark Kendall being roared on by those raised voices drifting in on the December chill.
Opening up, Smith admits, “I’ve have always loved Newport County. I guess it was something my dad Andrew and mum Kay instilled deep inside me when I was a kid. I remember dad giving me the club’s amber home shirt one Christmas. I was so proud to put it on and wear that badge. It was a huge moment for me.
“Dad was a hard worker who grafted in the Port Talbot steel works. He lived, and still does, for football on the weekends. His moods would depend on how County did. If they lost it was always a good idea to give him time to come around. He is still a season-ticket holder today and goes over to Rodney Parade regularly.
“He used to show me all his old programmes from the matches he went to – there was a tale behind every single one of them.”
Smith was born five years after County reached the last eight of the European Cup Winner’s Cup – only to be eliminated by the then crack East German team Carl Zeiss Jena 3-2 on aggregate.
Len Ashurst’s men had held the Germans 2-2 behind the Iron Curtain only to lose a Titanic tussle by the only goal in front of a raucous gate of 18,000-plus – three County efforts cleared off the line, a post struck and a controversial goal-line clearance by Jena’s Stefan Bauer.
Recalled Smith, “Dad used to go on about that match. I remember seeing the game's faded colour footage. I don’t think my father got over that defeat for a long time.
“He really did bring me up to support Newport. We used to go over to Spytty Park to watch County play in the old Dr Martens League. I was right in the thick of it, hearing the players shouting and the manager bellowing instructions across the pitch.
Smith is fully appreciative of the legal wars won and County’s gruelling period of exile that preluded their return to the Football League via a 2-0 Conference Play-off Final victory over Wrexham at Wembley Stadium 12 years ago.
He said, “Dad was made up to see Newport get back into League Two. They have been in this division for quite some time now. When you look at the likes of Wrexham and what they have achieved it has to give you inspiration, even though they have leap-frogged Newport in terms of status.
“I truly believe we need to deliver a club for our city to be proud of – and I think we will. My job here means a lot to me because it I carry the badge of a very special club. I don’t feel the weight of extra expectancy; it’s more of a pride thing.”
Former Crystal Palace coach Smith is convinced Fuchs and himself will mix a cocktail for Port success. He insists, “Christian is a very progressive manager. Right now, he knows what is required to get the club onto safe ground and away from the situation we now mind ourselves in.
“The style of play that people are seeing now, is nothing like what will be seen in the months and years ahead. It’s a long-term project to get Newport County up the leagues, but it’s safety first.”
The Fuchs-Smith management partnership will look to strengthen Newport’s squad in a January transfer window that opens shortly after the club receive Crewe Alexandra on December 29 – three days after the visit of the Bees – prior to visiting Bromley on New Year’s Day.
First up, it’s a long trip east to Colchester this coming weekend – with Wales international Matt Smith, and central defender Matt Baker both travelling, striker Courtney Baker-Richardson returning after suspension, injured on-loan Leicester raider Nathan Opoku, not ruled out.
But Smith dreams of the day Newport can see more of their own academy graduates coming into the first-team.
He said, “It’s a wonderful thing for the fans to see local lads come through the system, enjoying a club’s improved facilities. We have Harri Pugh and Mo [Moses Alexander-Walker] training regularly with the first-team now. That type of thing lightens my heart.”