NEWPORT County AFC director Shaun Johnson has revealed that the club’s playing budget is just over £1m and confirmed that there is still money remaining for manager Michael Flynn to add to his squad.

Speaking at a supporter meeting at Rodney Parade, Johnson also told fans that the club lost around £250,000 last season – half of the average loss for League Two clubs.

Around £150,000 of that money went on the January signings to help the club fight off relegation and another £100,000 on paying off former manager Warren Feeney and to cover costs relating to postponements and abandonments at Rodney Parade.

Johnson said: “The playing budget is in the bottom five in League Two but we feel it is competitive to give Mike what he needs and there is still capacity to bring more players in.”

Speaking about the Exiles’ relationship with the Welsh Rugby Union, which has taken charge of Rodney Parade this summer, new chief executive Alex Tunbridge said: “The WRU are a breath of fresh air.

“They are obviously doing the pitch. The drainage and irrigation is in and in a few weeks the pitch, which will be 15 per cent synthetic fibre and 85 per cent grass, will be rolled out and after 10 days it will be ready to play on.

“The boxes at the south end are also coming down to make way for an away fans’ supporter zone.

“And the WRU will be installing new floodlights on top of the Hazell Stand to make sure that we meet EFL regulations.”

He added: “The WRU will also be putting in a new disabled ramp in the north end of the stadium and they will be upgrading the facility for home fans.

“We’ve also told them that the away provision for disabled fans is unacceptable.

“We’ve expressed that to them and they have asked us to put together a list of what needs to be done urgently.

“Some of that is some safety stuff in the Hazell Stand, which is at times a little bit shoddy.

“Some new seats have gone in and they’ve reinforced the crash barriers so they meet EFL standards and I’m sure you will see an improvement come the first game.”