PERSPECTIVE wasn’t hard to find this week for Newport County AFC.

A disappointing 1-0 home defeat against a side lower in the division, where barely a shot on target was mustered by the beleaguered hosts.

A poor crowd, of less than 3000 there to see it, even though this has been a season of unprecedented highs. Where have all the fans gone?

A club who had a manager who was fantastic, but who lost him to a rival outfit in a higher division, with the man they call Jimmy coming to save the day.

But that’s quite enough about Burton Albion.

If you can’t see the parallels between County’s excellent victory at the weekend and Morecambe’s seven days previously, something is amiss.

We as football fans are often prone to thinking our team is the only one to exist, that we are alone in our frustrations, our disappointments and dips in form.

However, if you’ve been part of those despairing at the County, who have been dismayed at the blip of the past few weeks, now is the time to re-assess your position.

This column has hardly been shy in stating in the past when “your County need you,” and tonight’s game with Mansfield Town at Rodney Parade is such an occasion.

Not only are the club back in the League Two play-off spots – rumours of their demise have definitely been exaggerated – but the Exiles will also pay tribute to one of their own this evening.

It is understood that several County stars from the past will be on hand tonight to honour “Mr Newport County,” Dai Williams and that should be incentive enough to draw the missing 1000 or so to Rodney Parade.

However, if it isn’t, surely the pure black and white situation of the Exiles being in the chase for promotion with just 13 games remaining is enough to whet appetites.

And don’t even try and tell me that the Exiles don’t have the quality to make it into the top seven, because they absolutely do.

Bad players can’t go virtually three months unbeaten, as the County did this term and they also can’t muster seven points from the three most daunting trips in League Two, to Shrewsbury, Wycombe and Burton.

As bad as the Exiles were against Morecambe, they were exceptional at the weekend and it goes without saying that improving their home form is going to make or break County’s campaign.

The club were sensational at Rodney Parade between the end of August and the end of January and with the same personnel, there is no reason whatsoever why they can’t return to that situation with the fans on their side.

Similarly, I do honestly fail to see why there is such a growing sense of doom and gloom in respect of the club off the field.

The Exiles are strengthening the management of the club as a whole by appointing a raft of new non-executive directors and Howard Greenhaf has stated publicly that the club would listen to ANYONE who is keen to get involved, while any individual or consortium looking to invest in the club would be welcomed with open arms.

For now, it is somewhat hard to see what more they could be doing, because having their budget trimmed if they remain in League Two comes down to nothing more than cutting their cloth accordingly, based on season attendances.

This has been a fabulous season so far for the Exiles and with 13 games to go, there is all still to play for in League Two as they seek an unlikely promotion.

It was encouraging to hear Nathan Blake suggest recently that Newport could potentially be a Championship club, because long-term success should very much be the focus of everyone connected with the club.

And in the meantime, those of us who simply go to the games and watch would do well to remember how we felt at the start of August, and what a shock we’d have had to be told the club would be seventh in March.

Crisis. What crisis?