Deano leads Exiles into the big time
2:40pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in Sport
DEAN Holdsworth will take his Newport County players to the races today as a treat to celebrate their record-breaking promotion to the Football Conference.
The Welsh club were crowned champions of the Blue Square South on Monday when they beat one of Holdsworth’s former clubs Havant and Waterlooville 2-0 in front of a crowd of 4,200.
That was a record attendance for any of the divisions which are two rungs below the Football League.
The promotion signals a major and long-awaited revival for the club who were in the Football League until 1988 and reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1981.
In fact, Holdsworth — a Reebok regular for five-and-a-half years after becoming Wanderers’ record signing in September 1997 — has led the Exiles to a host of records on the way to becoming the first club on the Football League ladder to be promoted this season, securing the title with a 27-point margin on the back of a 21-match unbeaten run.
“Someone told me we were the first club in Europe to get promoted,” Holdsworth said, putting a debatable coat of gloss on an already incredible achievement.
Surprisingly, though, he refuses to let anyone in South Wales to get carried away with their success.
Considering Newport have not had much to shout about for more than two decades, he might be tempted to talk of riding back to league football on the crest of his winning wave.But the Londoner who was a member of Wimbledon’s famous Crazy Gang is very much a realist.
“It’s a natural progression for the club to test itself in the Conference,” he acknowledged, “but I told the people here back in September to be careful what they wished for.
“The cost of going up into the Conference can make it difficult. They are ready for it, they want to do it, which is good, but they have to take stock.
“They really are going into the unknown . . . there are clubs in the Conference who have £1.5million budgets with full-time players and we just can’t compete with that just yet.
“We’ve built a really big club shop, which is a start, but we need to generate a lot more money and that money needs to be pushed out onto the pitch.
“We’ve had an incredible season but the last thing I want them doing is saying they now want league football. That would be unfair on the supporters and the players.
“Let’s just see where we get to next season and take it from there.”
Personally, the ambitious Holdsworth is delighted with the progress he is making in his managerial career, which began at Redbridge in the Isthmian League.
“I think I’ve done it the right way,” he said. “I’ve not tried to go the big-time route. I’ve gone down the work-hard route to get a good grounding.”
Knowing his reputation for backing winners, Newport’s part-timers should not be surprised if Holdsworth takes the bookies for a ride at Cheltenham.
They should make the most of the day out, though, because the manager insists it will be back to football business tomorrow.
“It was special the other night, not because we won the title but because we won the game in style,” Holdsworth added.
“The boys deserve their day at the races, but after that they’ve got to get their minds back on the job.
“I want to keep the ball rolling and finish the season with 100 points.
“We’ve proved we are the best team ever in this division but there can be no let-up.”
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