FRUSTRATED Newport County AFC manager Warren Feeney has labelled the club’s current training facilities ‘a disgrace’ and says finding a permanent base has to be a top priority.

County currently use the former Bar Amber building at Spytty Park for changing and eating breakfast and lunch before and after training.

They are unable to use the pitch at Spytty, where they played competitive games until 2012, on a regular basis and Feeney is unhappy with the state of the pitches on offer at Llanwern School.

And he revealed that the players turned up this morning with nowhere suitable to train ahead of a crucial relegation battle at Stevenage on Saturday.

“We’ve trained well this week, which has been tough because where we’re training at Llanwern School the pitch is a disgrace,” said Feeney.

“And it annoys me because you work all week and you want quality on a Saturday but what we’re training on and what they said they’d look after they haven’t.

“We’re just being pulled from pillar to post at the moment and I want the best for the boys.

“As it stands at this minute we’ve got nowhere to train going into a big game.

“We’re sitting here at 8.45am with nowhere to train today.

“We’ll probably find a bit of grass off the M4 somewhere!"

UPDATE

County trained this morning at Spytty Park after Newport Live, the charitable trust that operates the stadium and other former council-run leisure facilities in the city, came to the rescue.

A spokesman for Newport Live said: “After a request by club director Jon Bowkett on behalf of Warren Feeney, Newport Live changed its planned maintenance programme and welcomed Newport County to train on the pitch at the Newport Stadium.”

Feeney continued at his weekly press conference this morning: “We’re coming into the nitty gritty part of the season and really you want to take the training sessions that we’ve had away from there and into the game on Saturday.

“Unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that at times.

“People will say it’s an excuse but it’s not – it’s just got to the point where I’m sick of it. It’s not excuses, it’s just frustrations.”

Feeney says discussions are under way to sort out a deal for a regular training base for next season, with Spytty Park his preferred option.

“You don’t want to be looking at excuses but your training ground is a massive thing because that’s where you do all your [work in the] week,” he said.

“It’s great that the school gave us the opportunity to train on it for the year but the pitch hasn’t been looked after.

“The school’s been great but, from a selfish point of view, the pitches have got to be right.

“What we were promised at the start to what it has been is not happening.

“We were told the pitch would be looked after but we’ve heard rugby teams have been on it at night.

“I don’t mind that as long as it’s looked after but it hasn’t been managed like we’ve been told.

“It’s just frustrating because you need a base where you do your work all week going into a Saturday.

“It is frustrating to be getting changed here, going up there to train and back.

“You want to have a base where the boys are changed, straight out onto the park and then come in and get your lunch – somewhere where it’s your own home.

“It’s Newport County and I want to be based in the city. That’s important because it’s our home.

“I want the boys enjoying coming in and at the moment I think we’ve used four or five different training pitches this season already, which is crazy.

“Spytty has been fantastic,” he added. “We’ve got on there a couple of times and we’ve had to go and use the 3G in Cwmbran.

“It’s difficult because you want a home and you feel like a cuckoo at times going here and going there.

“I just get sick of it sometimes and the players get frustrated and the quality of training just goes.

“It doesn’t help because if we go to the Astroturf some players can’t train on that.

“We want quality and we want intensity and it is tough.

“We’re hoping to get a deal with Spytty. Obviously the training ground [complex] is here but we’ve been using the school.

“They’ve let us on [sometimes] but they’ve got other organisations that train here as well so you’ve just got to be careful.

“The board has been fantastic and it’s something that we have discussed for the long-term.

“We are looking at things and hopefully we’ll get something done for next season. I think Spytty will play a big part in that.”