NEWPORT County AFC midfielder Max Porter believes the state of the pitch at Rodney Parade is in danger of derailing the club’s promotion push.

Tonight’s League Two clash with Plymouth Argyle is subject to a 12.30pm pitch inspection after torrential rain over the weekend left the surface waterlogged once again.

County have so far had three matches postponed since December 21 and Porter said the fact that the drainage work on the pitch was not finished last summer reflects badly on the club.

He is also concerned that it could cost the Exiles a second successive promotion, although he is still optimistic that the current run of poor results can be overcome.

“Our pitch is a bit of a shambles,” said the 26-year-old, who made his long awaited comeback as a late substitute in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Bristol Rovers.

“Only half the drainage has been done but we’re in the Football League now and we need games on because we had momentum and now we’ve not played and we’ve lost momentum.

“We really need Tuesday to be on because we need to get back to winning ways, especially at home because we’re so strong there.”

After Saturday’s Severnside derby defeat Justin Edinburgh’s men are now seven points below the play-off places but Porter still believes they can make the top seven.

“I don’t even look at the table, to be honest,” he said. “Any team can put a run together and if we can replicate the same points tally that we got in the first half of the season I think we’ll be very, very close.

“If we can make the play-offs that will be a magnificent achievement.

“We’re talking now about being disappointed if we don’t make the play-offs. Two years ago we’d have bitten your hand off to be playing Bristol Rovers again in a local derby.

“But as things change you change your aims and we are good enough to have a good crack at promotion again and that has got to be the aim.”

Porter was delighted to be back on the pitch in a competitive game for the first time since August after finally recovering from a career-threatening groin injury.

“It was a positive for me to get a run out but obviously we’re disappointed by the result,” he said.

“They scored before half-time after we’d weathered the storm, literally, and then straight after.

“If we go in at 0-0 we would have had the advantage second half. It gave them something to defend and then the conditions were better for them.

“We got back into it but to concede the third was sloppy. It was a poor clearance and that finished us off.”