I know I've mentioned on here on a few occasions that I had no part whatsoever, or any / much knowledge of those AFC days. As I've said too, it was the name 'County' that re-ignited my interest in the football club. Not being from Newport, I had no affinity with the newly formed AFC, though of course I recognise the efforts made by all to establish it in those early days.
What I'd like to know about, (and I ONLY need to views of those who were around at the time: donating, volunteering, going to games.... actively involved) is how did it FEEL at the time? When you saw a team from Newport in amber & black, take to the pitch for the first time:
* did you feel like it was the start of something big? ...
* or were you just happy for where you (AFC) were at the time?
* was there any element of 'billy big-balls' about the place in your attitudes to your opponents?
* did anyone GENUINELY know you'd get to the League again...or was it only ever a hope?
* are there things that could have been done differently?
* would you have been happy to stay as AFC, and not take the name 'County'?
* could you have stayed as AFC, but used 'County' as a nickname - (a bit like Chesterfield fans call them 'Town')
* how did you feel getting on your 'away' coach for what was actually a home game? - was it tiresome at all, or was it done with a sense of adventure and excitement?

As I said, I'm interested in how it ACTUALLY FELT at the time, so if possible, just say how you felt, without starting debates off with each other and disappearing off topic.

I should be interested in the reminiscences of those who were THERE at the time.

In order of questions.....

To me it didn't feel like it was the start of something big, it just felt like it was the start of something that we could all get behind. When you get to go to places like Supermarine & Almondsbury Picksons, I just enjoyed the fact I had my hometown club to support. Obviously you hope to get promoted, and I really thought with the recruitment we made in that first season playing against parks teams we should have won. We had 10 times the support of near enough every other club in the league, but not sure about "Billy Big Balls" attitude.

I genuinely never thought that getting back in the league was really possible - especially as our tenure in non-league got longer and longer. The Conference is the hardest league to get promoted from and just getting there proved to be an epic marathon in itself.

I can't comment on whether we could have done anything differently. I guess it was part of the journey! The stories from those years make up the backbone of this club - not the County times, but the AFC years. It was a struggle and I truly believe that the fight in the club that we love and thrive on right now is down to those years in the wilderness.

I think we were right to take on the County name. I think we did it at exactly the right time too. Most of us really thought of the club deep down as the County anyway and we all knew why we weren't actually called County, but we'd done our time and we needed the old supporters that we'd lost to come back. In reference to the Chesterfield simile, I don't think it would have worked. Our lot are a fickle bunch anyhow - Our identity from 1912 onwards was as Newport County and we represented Monmouthshire. That needs to continue and continue to grow. Why have a nickname when it can be your name?

Doing both stints in exile was actually quite exciting. Moreton-in-Marsh was a bugger to get to and it really was parks football. The fact that we were winning the majority of the games made it a lot easier!!!! If we had been mid table or worse then I think life would have been much more difficult. The gloucester years were really fun. I used to love going to Meadow Lane. Really great little stadium, easy to get to, nice atmosphere. It all added to the fact that we had to travel just to be at home made the away games so much easier to go to . We already had to go to Gloucester so why not just add another 30 minutes to go away.....

Some of my best County/AFC memories have been away at Moor Green - coming from 2-0 down to win 4-2. 1800 people turning up to Almondsbury when they usually only got 25. The fact that we never used to beat Trowbridge at their place. Losing 6-1 at Stafford Rangers when they were bottom of the league!!!

I loved the AFC years. I had a genuine love of non-league football at the time too. I do live at the other end of the world now so being in the league makes it far easier to explain to people that I support Newport County, whereas previously, trying to tell people there is professional football outside of the EPL and EFL was pretty tiresome to say the least!

Beefy

It was always still the County to me so I'm glad we took the name back on eventually. For me it was just having my team back - at the time you don't really think about getting back into the league although that was always the story behind the reforming of the club and the fight against the Welsh FA to play in Wales a few years down the line.

I loved the little grounds as I like the character of little crumbling old stadiums that are rough around the edges.

I loved that you were so close to the pitch and there was so much banter between fans and opposition goalies. I remember one keeper really inciting the fans at Cirencester!

I loved some of the early players who were far too good for the level. Dean Herrity in the early years and then Linden Jones - a right back banging in 30 odd goals as a striker!

Great times but delighted to be where we are and long may it continue!

There was also the issue of fans who couldn't get to the games. In the pre-internet era it could be a bit of a challenge to find out the results from the Hellenic League shortly after the match.

I often had to ring the 'Newport AFC Hotline' to discover how we had got on. You knew immediately from the tone of Wallace Brown's voice, whether we had won or not.

I started watching County in 1986, so missed the relative glory years, but had read lots about them, and heard plenty of anecdotes, so when Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan signed for Newport AFC, the wide-eyed 12 year-old me was ridiculously excited. I'd only heard tales about them. They were like mythical beings.

I was out of the loop pre-Internet and on a long holiday in Australia when the new club was founded, I didn't even know there were any plans. It hadn't really occurred to me that anyone would bother.

Then my work pattern meant I couldn't get to any games for about a month, but as soon as I did I was hooked. It helped that nearly all our games were an easier journey than to Newport, and then the sheer injustice of the FAW just cemented it.

The name thing wasn't a big deal either way but with hindsight I think it could have been restored a bit earlier, maybe when we returned from Gloucester. I also loved Meadow Park, if only we'd been able to start with a ground like that. Not on a catastrophically vulnerable flood plain, obviously.

I always felt the League was attainable eventually and obviously that was always the club's raison d'etre, but there are things about being there I don't enjoy

To add to the above. Before the creation of AFC I had never, other than for Cupties been in a non league ground.

Although I have been to over 70 league grounds, over 80 if you count clubs no longer in the league, I developed a passion for non league football. When on a Saturday I couldn't make a County game I would watch a non League game and up until I left the UK I'd watch non league football rather than the overpriced league game every time.

Stanley Weinstein wrote:It felt OK, but no matter how hard I campaigned for a ground of our own, nobody would listen.

As a result of our board's ineptitude, we then ended up playing home games in Gloucestershire.

I even offered £50 towards a new ground as well as some used bannisters from an old staircase of mine, but still it seemed our board preferred to play home games in Gloucester.

Unbelievable really.

Imitation is the sincerest form I suppose. Women want me: men want to be me.

newgroundrodney wrote:Were there any stand out characters?.... anyone who put their name forward, if you like, anyone "without whom there might not have been a Club" so to speak?

I think that in the first season everyone felt part of the rebirth. Kids bought a £10 share and felt they were part of something. I don't know when that was lost. But the egos took over as the years went by.

Lord Tredegar's Parrot wrote:There was also the issue of fans who couldn't get to the games. In the pre-internet era it could be a bit of a challenge to find out the results from the Hellenic League shortly after the match.

I often had to ring the 'Newport AFC Hotline' to discover how we had got on. You knew immediately from the tone of Wallace Brown's voice, whether we had won or not.

I started watching County in 1986, so missed the relative glory years, but had read lots about them, and heard plenty of anecdotes, so when Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan signed for Newport AFC, the wide-eyed 12 year-old me was ridiculously excited. I'd only heard tales about them. They were like mythical beings.

Wow I had completely forgotten about the Newport AFC Hotline
If I remember rightly it had some awful load blast of music at the start!

Collars wrote:

Lord Tredegar's Parrot wrote:There was also the issue of fans who couldn't get to the games. In the pre-internet era it could be a bit of a challenge to find out the results from the Hellenic League shortly after the match.

I often had to ring the 'Newport AFC Hotline' to discover how we had got on. You knew immediately from the tone of Wallace Brown's voice, whether we had won or not.

I started watching County in 1986, so missed the relative glory years, but had read lots about them, and heard plenty of anecdotes, so when Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan signed for Newport AFC, the wide-eyed 12 year-old me was ridiculously excited. I'd only heard tales about them. They were like mythical beings.

Wow I had completely forgotten about the Newport AFC Hotline
If I remember rightly it had some awful load blast of music at the start!

I don't think I'll ever forget it. Sat there on the phone, waiting for Wallace to just spit the bloody score out. Was usually around the 5 minute mark

rncfc wrote:

Collars wrote:

Lord Tredegar's Parrot wrote:There was also the issue of fans who couldn't get to the games. In the pre-internet era it could be a bit of a challenge to find out the results from the Hellenic League shortly after the match.

I often had to ring the 'Newport AFC Hotline' to discover how we had got on. You knew immediately from the tone of Wallace Brown's voice, whether we had won or not.

I started watching County in 1986, so missed the relative glory years, but had read lots about them, and heard plenty of anecdotes, so when Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan signed for Newport AFC, the wide-eyed 12 year-old me was ridiculously excited. I'd only heard tales about them. They were like mythical beings.

Wow I had completely forgotten about the Newport AFC Hotline
If I remember rightly it had some awful load blast of music at the start!

I don't think I'll ever forget it. Sat there on the phone, waiting for Wallace to just spit the bloody score out. Was usually around the 5 minute mark

At 60p a minute as well in the early days! As soon as I found out the score I'd hang up!

I was at the ‘Steering Committee’ meeting at Lysaghts, where everything was basically pie-in-the-sky. So to see everything come to fruition at Moreton was pretty special. However, it really was parks football. I truly didn’t believe we’d ever get back to the FL in those days. IIRC we set a record attendance at every away game we played, so yes to the other teams we were ‘Billy Big-boots’. I remember Kintbury stuffed us 3-0 & ramped the prices up on the beer & burgers. It was far more of a social thing too. Drinking pints of mild in the Midlands club’s clubhouses. Mind you, I hated the bloody never-ending M50! Although I never want to go back, I have some fond memories of those times.

My overriding memories of those days were the desolation I felt when the County died followed by the sheer elation when they reformed. It didn't matter to me that County wasn't in the name. AFC were still the County to me. The rebirth of my team was more important to me than winning promotion or beating a Premier League team.

Going to places like Rugby, Gresley Rovers and Sutton Coldfield (I was living in the East Midlands at the time) and watching players from the glory years like Lowndes, Vaughan and Kendal was really the icing on the cake. Care free days where the County / AFC won nearly every game. There was no doom and gloom on internet. Just being alive was all that mattered.

I often had to ring the 'Newport AFC Hotline' to discover how we had got on. You knew immediately from the tone of Wallace Brown's voice, whether we had won or not.

I started watching County in 1986, so missed the relative glory years, but had read lots about them, and heard plenty of anecdotes, so when Steve Lowndes and Nigel Vaughan signed for Newport AFC, the wide-eyed 12 year-old me was ridiculously excited. I'd only heard tales about them. They were like mythical beings. [/quote]

Wow I had completely forgotten about the Newport AFC Hotline
If I remember rightly it had some awful load blast of music at the start![/quote]


I don't think I'll ever forget it. Sat there on the phone, waiting for Wallace to just spit the bloody score out. Was usually around the 5 minute mark [/quote]

At 60p a minute as well in the early days! As soon as I found out the score I'd hang up! [/quote]


That's what you told the Mrs with them 0898 calls then