NEWPORT County chairman Chris Blight will not be beating the war drum like he did before the last campaign but he still admits he is "quietly confident" about the new Nationwide South campaign.

Before last term County and Blight threw the kitchen sink at gaining promotion and it backfired but this year's softly, softly approach has led to more rational pre-season predictions but Cornforth has built a side which has slowly started to look the part.

"I have been very impressed with the way John Cornforth has formed this team over the summer," Blight said.

"He got straight to work as soon as the last game of last season and he has worked tirelessly to get this team together.

"Last season we were all very confident about the year ahead when we looked at the players that came in but we just had players that looked good on paper.

"This season we have a team."

He added: "I am quitely confident about this campaign. I won't be making the same overtures like last year but I have complete faith in John Corn-forth that we will have a much better season. I have been impressed with John's determination and 100 percent dedication and his ability to put together a strong team with a limited budget."

Blight and board removed Peter Nicholas after just eight games last season, with the club in the top half of the league, but he insists that he won't be setting any targets for Cornforth.

"There are no targets for the manager in terms of points or league placing," he said.

"We will be taking this season on a game to game basis.

"We won't be saying you have this many games to get this many points etc but football is ultimately about results and if we went eight, nine or ten defeats in a row, obviously we would have to review it.

"But I cannot see that as a situation that will posibly arrise as I have total faith in the manager."

He added: "We have worked as hard as possible to give John a budget that we feel he can use to compete at this level.

"There is no never-ending flow of income into the business but there is also an aspect of gambling at the start of the season.

"That is the nature of football and you can be flying by the seat of your pants at times.

"What we will do is to keep looking at it because certain things happen during the season that mean we can either bolster the side or cut our cloth accordingly."

To do that, it will take consistantly high attendances, but Blight believes the support is out there as long as the side can perform on the pitch.

"We had over 1000 people at our last home game that came along to help keep us up and it would be nice if we could have that for the start of the season and beyond," Blight said. "But to have that, the fans have to like what they are seeing.

"The Maidenhead game was very exciting but we don't want to be in that situation at the end of the season again.

"It is vital that the people of Newport, and the business people of Newport, get behind us.

"Without the backing of the fans we cannot get to our dream and that is having a Newport side in the football league."

He added: "We look around at Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol and Cheltenham and we are in the middle of them as the only city without a league club.

"It might take longer than we would like but if it is a slow building process then so be it."