AS we head to the defining point in Newport County AFC’s season, it is unfortunate to be hoping, rather than expecting, that we’ll soon get a clearer picture for the plan for next season.

We know plan A, of course. The Exiles make the play-offs, get to Wembley, stun a more fancied side at the home of English football and begin preparing for life in League One, something many of you possibly never thought you’d see.

That is still a possibility, even if the Exiles lose tonight at Roots Hall, but County will have no wriggle room left if that’s the case, they’ll simply have to beat Dagenham, York and Oxford to have a chance of getting over the line.

A club that is generally never better than with their backs against the wall, it would be foolish to write-off the Exiles and I’m certainly not doing that here. I still believe they can make the play-offs.

And if they don’t, I won’t be for turning in my view that Newport will still have had a good season. If I’d have been offered a top ten finish at the start of the campaign I’d have taken it and I’m sure that is true of most of you reading this.

Throw in the loss of Justin Edinburgh, the Pied Piper of this project and progress and I’d have snapped your arm off in taking a top ten finish.

However, that doesn’t mean the Exiles haven’t made mistakes since Justin’s move to Kent, because they clearly and surely have done.

The margins are exceptionally fine as we ponder whether Newport can get over the line, but the issues that they’ll face if they do not cannot be put off any longer.

It has been fine and dandy to just let Newport be, they’ve been pushing not only for League Two promotion but dealing with a massive assessment of their youth academy, two tasks that will help to shape the future of the club. It has been all hands to the pump and Newport are privately confident they’ve done what was required to ensure the academy will continue to receive Football League funding and be a key focus for the club.

They are also working diligently behind the scenes, a couple more directors set to be announced in the coming weeks and the club have for a long time been trying to secure a permanent training base, one that they own outright and that would be hugely significant. Stuff like that makes me more positive, but it doesn’t paper over the cracks.

Namely, County could be set for their biggest squad exodus since Peter Beadle was sacked in April 2008.

The departure of Beadle led to a period of uncertainty as the club pondered their next managerial appointment – eventually settling on Dean Holdsworth – who arrived and found less a squad of players and more a five-a-side team.

By the time it came for Holdsworth to assess his personnel many of the players had moved on and the Exiles are in danger of being in exactly that position again some six years later.

Because other than a select few, Joe Day, Andrew Hughes and Mark Byrne, the vast majority of Newport players are only contracted until June 30, 2015.

And having been in the top seven of League Two for most of the campaign, it would be naive to think that County’s players aren’t going to be in demand.

And it doesn’t necessarily mean lazily linking everyone with Gillingham and a reunion with Edinburgh.

I’d personally be keen to retain the majority of this squad, because aside from a lack of goals, Newport have proven to be consistent for almost an entire campaign and are clearly still improving, borne out by their league position.

Most of the “tough calls,” have already been made with the Exiles jettisoning Danny Crow, Christian Jolley, David Pipe and Lenny Pidgeley from their promotion squad and none of the forwards, aside from Aaron O’Connor; have done enough to suggest they’ll necessarily be offered terms of next season.

But the nucleus should. And will that be possible?

County have created a huge rod for their own back by handing over squad shaping responsibilities to in essence a temporary manager, because no-one would argue with much conviction that Dack will still be here next term.

Top guy, top coach and potentially a good manager if that was what his heart desired, but it appears Dack is happier as a number two and his failure to declare interest in the role permanently, by this stage, should act as a giant red flag warning to County’s boardroom.

Because now is the time to find out if Dack wants to be considered and interviewed for the post. Now is the time to begin seeing candidates. Now is the time, because the end of the season is too late. If they leave this until May, by the time a new boss is in situ, it will be too late for him to get his pick of this current group and the new boss will be in a Holdsworth position where he is almost signing players indiscriminately. It is no way to build a club.

Because wherever County finish this term, this has been a season of progress, just Newport’s second campaign in League Two and they’ve been so impressive.

That can’t all go to waste. But unless decisions for next season are made now, that’s exactly what is going to happen.