No one wants to play at Rodney Parade but Newport County have shown they can use pitch to their advantage

“The pitch is a joke, it shouldn’t be allowed in the Football League – it’s scandalous.”

Few people would argue with the assessment of Hartlepool United manager Dave Jones after his side went down to a 3-1 defeat at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

And he was speaking before the frankly farcical events of Sunday afternoon when the Newport Gwent Dragons v Newcastle Falcons Anglo-Welsh Cup tie was abandoned after 68 minutes, which was 68 minutes too late in the view of most observers.

The state of the pitch is clearly an embarrassment to County, the Dragons and owners Newport RFC and it does the city’s reputation no good whatsoever when the pictures are broadcast on national TV.

Renovation work to sort out the drainage issues is planned for the summer and, in the long term, most parties agree that a hybrid Desso-style surface is the ideal solution if the three-way ground share is to work.

But, however hard the ground staff work, the simple truth is that we are unlikely to see much improvement before the summer when the aim is to repair the damage that was done to the drainage system last year.

Between now and then all parties have to make the best of a bad situation and, as County showed on Saturday, they now have a squad capable of making the pitch work to their advantage.

Graham Westley has talked for months about developing a team and a game-plan to get results at home and it seems as if he’s getting there.

The signs were there in the 1-1 draw with high-flying Colchester United two weeks ago with David Pipe in inspirational form.

And the additions of Mitchell Rose and Ryan Bird (below) have injected extra energy in midfield and physical presence up front.

County striker Aaron Williams, who headed in the second goal on Saturday after Bird has opened the scoring, said afterwards: “We know what we’ve got to do on this home pitch.

“We know we can’t pass, pass, pass. We know we’ve got to stick it in and the forwards know that we’ve got to keep running in behind and chasing lost causes.

“Me and Birdy and the other forwards are more than happy to do that for the team.”

And if Craig Reid can continue to cause panic in opposition defences with his expertly delivered set-pieces then County may just be able to get the results they need at home in order to stay up.

Pools substitute Padraig Amond, who scored a late consolation for his side on Saturday, told the Hartlepool Mail: “Before the game, a couple of Newport players were saying they almost have two different sides, a home team and an away team.

“The lads said when they go away they try to play the ball about a bit but when they are at home they try to shot it long because the pitch isn’t good.”

It isn’t pretty to watch but in the Exiles’ current predicament it’s a case of needs must and the game-plan was mightily effective against Pools.

“We were outfought and probably out-thought,” added Amond.

“The pitch isn’t great so they’ve said ‘let’s turn this into a not-so-nice game to watch’, they’ve adapted to it a lot better than we did.

“When the going gets tough, we’ve got to be willing to put bodies on the line, do the uglier side of the game.

“I don’t mean Newport were dirty, because they weren’t.

“They were willing to do the not-so-nice part of the game.

“We knew what they were going to do but they’ve scored from three set-plays and it’s just not good enough.”

Jones was also irked by an absence of plugs in the away dressing room among other things.

“Sometimes you have to accept that [the pitch] and all the other bits that go with it,” said the former Cardiff City boss.

“But what’s all the stuff about? No electricity? The water running cold?

“Unbelievable, I thought all that went out years ago. “Things should be better than that, but each to their own.”

Comments like these from moaning managers should be music to the ears of County fans because more often and not they come when the visiting team is heading home empty handed.

Exiles boss Westley has, of course, not been afraid to criticise the pitch and he will welcome a better playing surface next season.

But the more whingeing we hear from opposition managers in the next few months, the better it will be for County’s survival hopes.

As for the Dragons match on Sunday (above), those blaming the Rodney Parade chiefs for allowing the game to go ahead – and potentially furthering damaging the surface – should perhaps direct their ire towards referee John Meredith.

Dragons chief executive Stuart Davies has revealed that contingency plans were in place to move the tie to Cross Keys but they were scuppered by the late arrival of Meredith from Middlesbrough.

“The regulations suggest the call over whether a game can go ahead should be made three hours before kick-off,” Davies told Walesonline.

“If that had happened, we could have relocated to Cross Keys.

“The referee arrived at 1.25pm, with the game due to kick-off at 3pm. Our gates were open by then and people were filtering into the ground.

“By 1.50pm, the ref still hadn’t gone on to the pitch.

“I knocked on his door to ask him what his view was. I wanted to see if was happy to go ahead and to find out if the game was at risk.

“His position was for the teams to decide.

“It felt like a little bit of an abdication of responsibility by the referee. It’s fair to say, it wasn’t well received by either side. Ultimately, it is his call.

“It is something that I will take up formally with Premiership Rugby.

“It should have been a tri-partite collective decision. For the referee not to be there in sufficient time for us all to work together on the decision was disappointing.”