Newport County the story so far..

Welsh football is in vogue, the football purists are in love with Swansea City and their pass percentages, the pragmatic fans are impressed with Cardiff City and their dogmatic performances and the La Liga lovers are still in love with Gareth Bale and his latest injury.
This article is all about what else lies beneath the footballing aristocracy in Wales, what I found is a truly remarkable football club, a community club with a very strong fan base both on the terraces and in the boardroom, a side managed by an ex- English Premier League defender and a chairman you would die for- I give you Newport County AFC.

Newport County are managed by ex-Tottenham Hotspur defender Justin Edinburgh and currently sit just outside the Sky Bet League 2 play-off places. Edinburgh has overseen a real shift in the clubs success over the past few seasons and this success has brought Newport County to the attention of Sofa Football.
Newport is a small town in South Wales, sitting not so quietly in the shadows of their Premier League neighbours but nothing about this football club should ever be dismissed. In its history the club has been liquidated, moved home, changed names and fallen out with the Football Association of Wales so badly that it had to go to the high court to prove Newport County had the right to play their football in the English league system and remain in Wales.

The club is nicknamed the Exiles, a blunt and evidently political nickname derived from two stints playing outside of Wales in England just to survive. At times they were forced to play their home matches 82 miles away in Gloucester just to function in the English league system.
Modern times are a lot brighter under Justin Edinburgh and he sees that the past can influence the future with the astute young manager using the clubs history to attract a certain type of player to the club, players with something to prove and a level of pride in their work. Ex- Coventry defender and club captain David Pipe returned from a prison sentence to lead his team back into the football league is testament to the player and the club.
I wanted to find out more about the club ethos at Newport County so this week I have been in conversation with Southampton Exile: @SotonExile and asked what is so special about supporting Newport County AFC. The reply is a deep understanding of the very principles of football fandom.
‘Because we don’t expect anything but celebrate every small accolade or victory, the fact that most of us have never seen any success makes what we are witnessing absolutely priceless.’
‘It’s cool supporting a fashionable club who are constantly surprising people, even in the Blue Square Premier we regularly took away 200-300 fans, now in League 2 we took over 900 fans to Exeter’.
The message is moving, local fans are no longer travelling to watch Cardiff or Swansea, they believe in their local team, a winning mentality and a fashionable identity is encouraging new fans to follow Justin Edinburgh’s side. They play attractive football; in their first match back in the football league they beat Accrington Stanley 4-1.
Edinburgh took over after the previous manager Anthony Hudson left them in the relegation places of the Conference; Edinburgh’s brief was to avoid relegation. His impact on the team was staggering, they avoided relegation and enjoyed their first ever trip to Wembley for the FA trophy final. Sadly, they were beaten by York City but the desire and passion of that cup competition drove the Exiles to promotion in the 2012 play-off final back into the football league. It was their centenary year but more ironically and typically Newport County it was against welsh opposition- Wrexham.
Their manager has ability, he played at the domestic highest level and this reputation attracts better players but like all successful management there is solid support at boardroom level and Newport County have a man in charge who gives his manager what he needs.
In 2009, Les Scadding picked up his EuroMillions card and pocketed a cool £45.5m, although Bristol born, Scadding has lived in the area for over 15 years and calls Newport his local club. When the previous chairman Chris Blight invited him to a few games he caught the football bug and the natural transition occurred but Scadding is no sugar daddy.

SouthamptonExile describes Scadding as ‘an unemployed lorry driver and one of the fans really, only more sensible’. It is a common misconception that he puts money into the club, he is a very wealthy fan that would step in if the club was under threat. There is a big difference between a businessman chairman and lotto winning chairman but this security gives the club stability.
A key example of where Scadding stepped in was when Newport bought Christian Jolley from AFC Wimbledon for £1,500 with Scadding footing the bill. The resulting signing played a crucial role in their promotion to the football league, netting in the final. He runs the club sensibly and has the respect of his manager, very Arsene Wenger.

So there you have it, Newport County AFC, a club to look out for, a fashionable club that appreciate where they have come from and the miracle journey they are currently on. Their rise through the divisions is only a matter of time. There is a now another team from South Wales in vogue, sorry Mr Laudrup its Mr Edinburgh we’d like to speak to.

Write me a story in 10 minutes..

Someone said to me the other day 'well done with the book, you're very brave'
Why is it brave to write about something, instead of nattering with your friends or a bored work colleague over lunch, why don't more of us just have a go at writing.

People think they must have A' levels and possibly a degree in English in order to even conceive the idea of putting pen to paper but the actual process can be quite easy if you give yourself the opportunity to do so.
We all doodle, we all chat, we all know what a pencil and paper are, hell we all know what a computer is, we all have read at least one book in our lives so what's the issue?

'I don't have the time, I cant be bothered, I've got nothing to write about'.
Life is a rich tapestry of experiences and we love to share those experiences with other people. The web has allowed people to share their life experiences with the world via blog pages and social media.
It seems that anyone who uses Facebook or Twitter have a HUGE amount to say or 'update' and a lot of status 'updates' are incredibly boring but they have at least something to say!
Instead of typing 'Gareth... loves cheese on toast with brown sauce', a more interesting status could be 'Gareth wants to know why brown sauce bosses red?. Write something interesting.

On the way home from our honeymoon in Samos, I was bored of the flight, the drinks trolley had poor PG tips tea and the flight attendant was as bored as I was. I announced to my wife that I wanted to play a game, I got a notepad out and said give me a 7 things and I'll write a story about the things that she suggested. Half heartedly whilst reading Vogue magazine, she mused, Rainbow, Iceland, Dragonfly, 2pm, Compass, 50p and Beard!
Strange as they were I spent 30 minutes frenetically knitting together all these things and came up with the Rainbow Dragonfly (The book is currently in production and will be released in 2014).
The book is a children's story with the basis of the story including a couple of the things she listed, not all I must add.

I believe that everyone has something to say and something to offer, people enjoy a good story and by giving ourselves 10 minutes of freedom we find we don't have to be William Shakespeare but we can be Joe Bloggs and still come out with a cool story!

Now go and write me a story..

 

Frankie Lampard's Magic Football Books

England and Chelsea F.C. legend Frank Lampard has decided to dip his literacy left foot into the world of children's books and his series of books titled Frankie's Magic Football have certainly drawn a crowd.

Lampard is a man to admire, he has it all, wealth, a TV presenter fiancé but he is a humble man who still celebrates a goal by pointing to the sky in honour of his mother who passed away a few years ago. What this man does, is live his life how his mother would want her son to do.

He recalls in his interview with the Telegraph's Martin Chilton (Feb, 2013)
"I first had the idea of Frankie and his Magic Football when reading stories to my own children. Sport and reading are two essentials for us at home, so I decided to make up my own football stories and adventures. The characters are loosely based on friends and team-mates I've played with over the years".

Frankie v The Pirate Pillagers is the first in the series of Frankie's Magic Football books, the stories give Lampard the opportunity to share this wonderful idea with children around the world. As a father he recognises the importance of parents connecting with their children through reading and the benefit this has on their literacy development and imagination.

Lampard's books have been published by Little Brown and have the backing of J.K Rowling so he's clearly impressing the right people. There are a limited amount of football books for children on the shelves with Dan Freedman and Tom Palmer producing excellent stories for older readers so its positive to see professional footballers with so much influence over young fans spending their time writing for them.

England & Arsenal striker Theo Walcott has written his series of football books called T.J and the hat-trick and David Beckham's Academy books did well so in my opinion this is a very positive move by Lampard to bridge the gap between fantasy and football.

The two children's football books that I have written were influenced by family and Frank Lampard has done the same by using family and fantasy to create a wonderful series of books that stretch children's imagination and create a situation where a father can read about football with his children- even after his team have lost on a Saturday afternoon!

Fair play 'Super Frank' and best wishes.