EVERY football club tends to see supporters attempt to categorise themselves as glass half full or empty types of folk, but I’ve definitely got a foot in both camps at the present time.

I don’t consider myself either a happy clapper who thinks any scenario other than playing in Moreton-on-the-Marsh in division 63 of English football is a success and we should be grateful for it, nor do I subscribe to the notion that County are a rotten apple of a club set for a crisis in the coming months.

There is little to be gained in repeating old ground on my thoughts about next season’s budget – namely that £1 million is fine by me – but I would be wrong not to bring ticket pricing back onto the agenda following the season ticket prices announcements from the club last week.

However, being as the Exiles are currently in their greatest league position in over three decades, it would be remiss not to begin by discussing the football, with County clinging to a League Two play-off berth with just five games to go.

Can we be pleased with a single point from the Hartlepool and Exeter double-header? Of course not, the home clash especially was a fantastic opportunity to create daylight for the Exiles, a chance they failed to take.

The scenario now is pretty simple, one point splitting Stevenage, County, Exeter, Luton and Plymouth with just two places up for grabs in the end of season showcase. Northampton, four points further back, have probably blown their chance.

So it’s a pretty simple equation, the Exiles need to match or better the points’ tally of a trio of rival sides.

We are speculating pointlessly if we attempt to put a target as to what will or won’t be good enough (other than assurance that five wins from five definitely will) and I can see a scenario whereby anything between 8-12 points gets you over the line.

I’m certain there will be some Exiles fans who are already stating that with their current form, County don’t have enough to finish the job, but form really is inconsequential this far gone in the campaign.

So tight are the margins, so close are the standings; that it is going to come down to bottle, purely and simply.

The cliché about any side being able to beat any other in League Two is not without foundation and it is the fine margins that will now settle who does or doesn’t finish the right side of that dotted line that punctuates the League Two table between seventh and eighth spot.

Fine margins like Yan Klukowski hitting a post at St James’ Park with the score deadlocked at 0-0. Fine margins like Ismail Yakubu failing to score with a header against Hartlepool, only to then be sent off when he easily might not have been had the referee been different – at Exeter.

At this point in proceedings luck and an ability to grind out results – with performances meaning absolutely nothing – are the be all and end all and to that end Jimmy Dack’s men must improve defensively at least.

I think everyone realises the club are short of firepower, the departures of Christian Jolley, Danny Crow and Rene Howe with just the addition of Miles Storey a curious piece of management from all concerned and a potential problem.

We know that the Exiles did all they could to bring in another forward, but their failure to do so seems increasingly costly with County almost entirely reliant on Aaron O’Connor to fire them to the play-offs.

However, that isn’t a scenario much different to the one we’ve endured all season and despite not having prolific forwards, the Exiles have remained well in contention, because they are a true team, a collective unit with no star names or big wages, but plenty of quality and most of all, endeavour and commitment.

That won’t change in the next five games and an ability to never give up, to grind out a draw when the in-form team of League Two are 2-0 up in your backyard, will bode well for Dack’s men.

What is undeniable, however, is that County fans, be you happy clappers or misery merchants, you’ll have your part to play.

Three of Newport’s remaining games are at Rodney Parade and trite as it sounds, but they’ll surely be the key to where Newport finish in the table. Your support will never be more vital than against Bury on Saturday, Dagenham a week later and Oxford United on the final afternoon of the campaign.

And let’s hope that support continues into next term, whatever division the Exiles find themselves in.

Because from the feedback I’m getting, some supporters are disgusted at season ticket prices for next term, with general rises across the board.

And while I don’t think all the criticism is fair, there can be no doubt in my mind that the powerbrokers at Rodney Parade have again failed to realise that every club is different and that comparing to the rest of the division isn’t a fair reflection on what prices should be.

Football is too expensive, from the Premier League to the Southern League and County officials have once again failed to recognise that fact.

I applaud the club for creating a cheaper option in the North Terrace, for allowing U16s a free season ticket in the Bisley with an adult one, and other initiatives, such as rewarding all young people and not just students. But these are just good headlines when the general message is that it’ll cost more to watch your team next season.

And while I think it’s important we reserve all our ire until we know the exact details of match day costs for next term (not yet released), because I’m led to believe there will be other initiatives to entice people through the door.

However, that’s as far as I can go in praising the club, because they are still thinking short-term when it comes to pricing policy. As long as they stack up in comparison to the likes of Cambridge and Northampton, County are putting prices up knowing that they can, without consideration for whether they should.

It’s not me being patronising or English or any other insult hurled my way when I write that Newport is a working class area that has been hit hard by austerity and the collapse of the world economy. It’s me stating a true fact about a city I have worked in for a decade.

Newport County fans love their team, but they love their families more and paying to go and watch football is always going to be a luxury in comparison to putting food on the table and shoes on feet.

I have no doubt whatsoever season ticket sales will fall unless Newport are promoted; because fans feel like they simply aren’t being listened to. If dwindling attendances throughout 2015 when County have been battling for promotion isn’t a sign that pricing is off, what else will be evidence enough? Why has this not been taken into consideration?

The club has to do more to consider their fanbase, because there is no point enjoying unprecedented success if a significant proportion of your fanbase can’t afford to see it.