NEWPORT County AFC fans still haven’t seen their team win at home since March but most of those who were at Rodney Parade on Saturday will have left with a spring in their step.

That poor home record – seven defeats and no wins in 10 games since beating Wycombe Wanderers 1-0 on March 5 – was no doubt the main reason for a disappointing attendance for this match.

The horrible conditions will have been a factor as well but people want to see winning football.

They also want to see a team working hard and, as Alan Hansen used to say every week on Match of the Day, showing ‘grit and determination’.

This County side certainly demonstrated those qualities in a heartening second half display against Crewe Alexandra.

A poor first 45 minutes saw Chelsea loan star Alex Kiwomya give the visitors the lead with a stunning curling effort from the corner of the penalty area to the top corner of Joe Day’s net.

The Exiles barely got out of second gear.

Warren Feeney threw on Jazzi Barnum-Bobb and Jon Parkin much earlier than he would have wanted to in an attempt to shake things up.

And Mark Randall almost levelled with a superb free-kick but Crewe were comfortably the better side and at the break County’s prospects looked as bleak as the leaden sky.

After the interval it was a different story as the Railwaymen ran out of steam and attempted to protect their lead while Feeney’s men poured forward at every opportunity.

The Exiles dug deep and refused to be beaten. Even as the clock ticked down and the chances came and went they kept plugging away and the pressure finally told in the 82nd minute.

Barnum-Bobb finally produced the perfect cross and the impressive Sean Rigg got the goal he and the team deserved with an intelligent glancing header across goal and beyond Ben Garratt.

Parkin, who stood out despite an understandable lack of sharpness, and Marlon Jackson also went close to scoring and it could have been even better for County.

But a point at home felt like progress, particularly on the back of two encouraging performances on the road.

After the fallout from that desperately unlucky last-gasp defeat at Luton Town, Feeney spoke about wanting to make Rodney Parade a fortress.

That’s easy to say and much harder to do and County are still a long way from it but Saturday was a good start and Feeney was pleased with the effort his players put in after the interval.

“I thought we stuck at it and there were some good performances from us,” he said.

“I take it as a compliment that they changed it and quite clearly in the second half we camped in their half.

“It can be quite frustrating when teams do that [sit deep] but fair play to them they stuck at it – we could easily have lost.

“I said to them at half-time ‘you’ve got 45 minutes to turn this around’ and they certainly had a go in the second half.

“It’s brilliant that the fans got behind them and that’s what you want,” he added.

“We want to turn this place into a fortress and the fans have been absolutely fantastic.

“We want to get about teams and when you do that it gives that little bit of surge to the fans and it helps the players.”

This new team has shown enough so far to suggest that they are better than last year’s version and they should only get better as the season goes on.

And if they produce more displays like the second half on Saturday they will soon climb the League Two table and hopefully tempt a few more fans back through the turnstiles at Rodney Parade.

County: Day; Butler, Jones, Bennett, Turley (Parkin, 23); Myrie-Williams, Labadie (Tozer, 72), Randall, Green (Barnum-Bobb, 19); Rigg, Jackson

Subs not used: Bittner, Bignot, Owen-Evans, Sheehan

Booked: Labadie, Jones

Referee: John Brooks

Attendance: 2,268 (284 Crewe)