“THE road to success is always under construction,” said Arnold Palmer, who died this week.

Having won more than 90 tournaments worldwide, including seven majors, the golfing great knew a thing or two about success.

And if he was right then Rodney Parade must be the busiest building site in British sport at the moment with our two main professional teams suffering all-too-familiar early season struggles.

Newport Gwent Dragons were comfortably beaten 27-11 at lowly Zebre on Friday night – their third defeat in four games in the Pro12.

And Newport County AFC lost 2-1 at home to bottom club Cambridge United – their fourth defeat in eight games – to slip into the League Two relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand.

The key difference between the two sides – and the main reason Kingsley Jones is not facing calls for his head while Warren Feeney is donning a hard hat – is that the Dragons cannot be relegated.

For the Exiles the prospect of a return to the non-league wilderness is a very real possibility and, even though we are still at a very early stage in the season, the fans’ concerns are understandable.

I wrote last week that the calls for Feeney to resign or be sacked were premature but that the clash with basement boys Cambridge would give us a better indication of the team’s prospects this season.

Defeat – making it one win in 21 games – was the final straw for some supporters with chants of ‘Feeney out’ heard for the first time by me at Rodney Parade.

I still believe that the manager has assembled a better squad than the one he guided to safety last season and deserves more time to solve the current defensive issues and the confidence crisis affecting the whole team.

But he knows that the clock is ticking and two more defeats this week – at Grimsby Town tonight and at home to Stevenage on Saturday – could easily see him out of a job in seven days’ time.

Feeney has a close relationship with the current board of directors and they have backed him in the transfer market, even if they have declined to back him publically since Saturday.

They showed with the dismissal of Terry Butcher 12 months ago that they are not afraid to make tough decisions, however, and I’d be very surprised if there have not been private discussions about Feeney’s future in the boardroom.

In the meantime it’s in the dressing room and on the pitch where there needs to be action.

The management and players need to block out all of the negativity currently surrounding the side and grab a win or, for a start, a clean sheet.

Easier said than done, of course, but they need positive results quickly.

There appears to be something of a siege mentality taking hold with Feeney refusing to speak to me on Saturday after objecting to a headline on the Argus website last week.

He did conduct an interview with BBC Wales and other media outlets but none of the players wanted to speak after another crushing defeat.

I can understand their reluctance because they know that anything they do say will be jumped on by fans telling them to ‘do their talking on the pitch’.

A lot of them will also no doubt be feeling that they have let down their manager in recent weeks and on Saturday in particular.

There may have been a foul on Marlon Jackson in the build-up but the defending for the visitors’ second goal was shocking.

There were multiple opportunities to clear the danger but all were squandered and Luke Berry showed the determination they lacked to hook the ball in and earn Cambridge a first win of the season.

He probably saved Shaun Derry’s job in the process.

Do the County players want Feeney to stay? Joe Day was the latest to say in print on Saturday that the manager has the players’ support but now they need to show that on the pitch because time is running out for the Exiles boss.