Club histories

Newport County

Also written as Newport.

The club

Newport County were founded in 1912, went out of business in 1989 and were reformed in June of that year. They play at Rodney Parade in Newport, south Wales, a ground shared with the Newport Gwent Dragons rugby region, capacity 7,850. The club are known as the Exiles, from the years spent playing outside Newport after the reformation, and also as the Ironsides and the Port. The supporters are the Amber Army. The club's playing colours were not confirmed by any source read for this dossier.

Recent seasons

Newport have been a League Two club throughout. They finished fifth in 2020/21 and reached the play-offs, then eleventh in 2021/22, fifteenth in 2022/23 and eighteenth in 2023/24. The last two seasons have been struggles: 22nd in 2024/25 and 20th in 2025/26 with 43 points from 46 games, four points clear of the relegation places. Harrogate Town on 39 and Barrow on 36 went down to the National League. Bromley won the division on 87 points.

Honours and landmarks

Newport's league championship is the Third Division South of 1938/39. They were promoted from the Fourth Division in 1979/80, won the Conference South in 2009/10, the Southern League Midland Division in 1994/95, the Hellenic League in 1989/90 and the Conference Premier play-off final in 2013. Cup honours are the Welsh Cup of 1979/80 and the FAW Premier Cup of 2007/08; they were FA Trophy runners-up in 2011/12. Their highest league finish is joint ninth in the Second Division in the abandoned 1939/40 season.

Record attendance at Somerton Park was 24,268 against Cardiff City on 16 October 1937 in the league, and 24,000 against Tottenham Hotspur in a cup tie on 9 January 1960. Len Weare holds the appearance record with 526 league games between 1955 and 1970. Reg Parker is the record scorer with 99 league goals in 201 appearances between 1948 and 1954. Record fee paid is £80,000 to Swansea City for Alan Waddle in December 1980; record fee received is upwards of £500,000 from Peterborough United for Conor Washington in January 2014.

Two things define the club's identity. The first is the European run of 1980/81: the Welsh Cup win took Newport into the Cup Winners' Cup, where they beat Crusaders 4-0 on aggregate and Haugar 6-0 at home before losing the quarter-final to Carl Zeiss Jena, drawing 2-2 away and losing 1-0 at Somerton Park. The second is the collapse: County went out of business on 27 February 1989 with debts of £330,000 and were expelled from the Conference for failing to fulfil fixtures. The reformed club worked back up from the Hellenic League and returned to the Football League in 2013 after 25 years away, beating Wrexham 2-0 at Wembley in the Conference National play-off final under Justin Edinburgh.

Notable scorelines

Record victory: 10-0 against Merthyr Town on 10 April 1930. Record defeat: 0-13 against Newcastle United in the Second Division on 5 October 1946, which is also one of the heaviest defeats in Football League history and is still the record win in Newcastle's own records. Newport are best known in the modern era for cup ties against the biggest clubs: they drew 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup in 2018 before losing the replay 2-0, and in 2019 beat Leicester City 2-1 and Middlesbrough 2-0 before losing 4-1 to Manchester City in the fifth round.

Head-to-head notes

Newport do not publish all-time head-to-head records and none were established for any 2026/27 League Two opponent. The Newcastle United 0-13 of 1946 is the one head-to-head fact in the club's records that a writer can lean on, and Newcastle are in the Premier League, so it will only ever come up as history. Newport meet AFC Wimbledon away in the first round of the EFL Cup on 8 August 2026; Wimbledon finished 19th in League One last season on 53 points. Newport and Northampton Town, both relegation-shaped clubs at this level, meet at Sixfields on 5 September 2026.

Right now (2026/27)

Hayden Mullins was appointed manager on 31 July 2026, one day before this dossier was written and two weeks before the first league game. He replaced Christian Fuchs, who resigned on 27 June 2026, meaning the club recruited its entire summer squad without a permanent manager in place.

Eight players came in, almost all on 1 July 2026: Harrison Biggins from Shrewsbury Town on a free, Kyle Cameron from Bromley, Christian Doidge from Forest Green Rovers, Kieron Evans from Eastleigh, Shaquille Gwengwe from Poole Town on a free, Cameron Norman from Tranmere Rovers and Dan Sassi from Blackpool. Yahya Bamba had already arrived from Forest Green Rovers on 23 June. The only departure of note was Lewis Jamieson, sold to Ross County for an undisclosed fee on 23 July.

Pre-season began well and ended badly. Newport won 3-0 at Bristol Manor Farm on 4 July and 5-0 at Newport City on 8 July, lost 2-1 at Gloucester City on 11 July, drew 0-0 with Bristol City behind closed doors on 21 July and 2-2 at Bath City on 25 July, then lost 4-0 to Reading on 28 July.

The EFL Cup first round tie is away to AFC Wimbledon on 8 August 2026. The League Two campaign opens at home to Rochdale on 15 August, followed by Bristol Rovers away on 22 August and Tranmere Rovers at home on 29 August. The Cheltenham Town fixture has been selected for Sky Sports+, and the Swindon Town and Chesterfield fixtures were amended on 31 July.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_County_A.F.C. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newport_County_A.F.C._records_and_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_Newport_County_A.F.C._season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_EFL_League_Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_EFL_Cup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newcastle_United_F.C._records_and_statistics https://www.newport-county.co.uk/news/

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.