Meet Newport County hero and charity boss Norman Parselle

He’s has had quite an action-packed career and has gone from being a boyhood supporter to playing for them and now running County in the Community as its chief executive.

Norman, or just plain Norm to everyone who knows him, is Pill born, Pill bred and still lives there, as much of an institution in the city as the Newport Transporter Bridge although, at the age of 53, not quite as old.

A handy midfielder in his day, he has experienced the demise and rise again of his beloved County.

He’s lived it as a budding apprentice in the late 1980s and the nightmare of the Jerry Sherman era, cried tears of joy at Wembley when they won promotion back to the Football League in 2013 at the expense of Wrexham and now he's at the helm of County in the Community with the aim of building something a bit special at Rodney Parade.

A former forklift driver at the Whiteheads Steelworks plant and postman, Norman also has the distinction of being the only Welshman to have represented the Great Britain Post Office football team.

Norman and his wife Cheryl celebrate a proud family day as their son Deiniol graduates from Worcester University

Norm was a member of the 1996/97 squad which took on Italy, Belgium and Greece.

He also captained the Wales baseball team to victory over England three years in succession between 2005 and 2007.

Born one of seven children – six boys and a girl – to Norman and Mary, his childhood was a blissfully happy one both at home and at St Michael’s School.

The interesting surname comes from his father’s French ancestry and mum was of Irish Catholic stock.

The first Parselles in Wales arrived way back in the 18th Century via St David’s in Pembrokeshire.

Norm was a talented player in the sadly lost art of baseball in the UK and captained Wales to a hat trick of victories over England in the Noughties. Picture: South Wales Argus

Sport was clearly in the blood even if Norman Senior's first allegiance was to the oval ball.

“My father loved rugby and Newport RFC and he had a debenture to watch Wales,” he said.

“He told me the best players he ever saw at Rodney Parade were Dai Watkins, Ken Jones and Gary Teichmann.

“But mum’s first love was the County, as it was for her parents.

“Mum won and so football came first for me.”

Norm in his footballing heyday with County. Picture: South Wales Argus

Norm was first taken down to Somerton Park by his big brother Gerrard where he caught the bug.

But he was considered something of a jinx after his first few games as a fan ended in setbacks.

The second leg defeat to East Germany’s Carl Zeiss Jena during the quarter-finals of their glorious European Cup Winners’ Cup run in 1981 might be forgiven.

A 3-1 loss to Bangor City in the last eight of the Welsh Cup that year perhaps a different matter.

Norm takes on Inter Cardiff’s Phil Fisher while playing for Cwmbran Town in the 1990s. Picture: South Wales Argus

His talents as a young and up-and-coming player were spotted by scouts from Ninian Park.

Norm said: “I used to travel along with Nathan Blake and Sean Wharton to play for the Cardiff City youth team.

“But it didn’t happen for me and I joined County in 1988 on a YTS scheme (the Youth Training Scheme was an on-the-job training course for school leavers introduced during Margaret Thatcher’s first stint as Prime Minister)."

Newport County were the tops dogs of Welsh football as they sat in the old Division Three (today’s League One).

Norman receives a framed County shirt bearing his name from ex-club operational chairman Gavin Foxall. The late, great David Hando is in the background. Picture: Nicola Johns @nicnacnoopixs

Cardiff City, Swansea City and Wrexham were Division Four sides then.

But things were seriously on the slide for County not long after which saw them drop into non-league football and witness near oblivion two seasons later.

“I would have loved to have been a professional footballer, but I just fell short,” he admits of a playing career that also saw him play for Forest Green Rovers and Cwmbran Town among others.

A much loved County figure, he was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame in 2015.

Married to Cheryl, Norm has a son Deiniol, aged 27, who works for County in the Community as a school sport co-ordinator.

He has been with the charity from the very beginning and, of its early days, he revealed: “We started with just a bag of balls and a second hand laptop.

“Now we have 19 staff. We’ve got great people and a great culture here.

“I wanted this role so much because I didn’t want anyone else making a pig’s ear out of it!”

Explaining his vision for the future, he said: “The ultimate goal is for the club to have state of the art training facilities here in Newport.

“You go to Swindon Town (the Robins are a fellow League Two side) and you can see that they’ve got fantastic facilities.

“Why can’t we have that in Newport?

“It’s something I’m going to die trying to do to get a fully accessible training facility and it’s something we are working with the council and partners like the FAW to achieve.”

Norman’s other ambition is for Newport girls and boys to grow up following the County and not their great rivals the Bluebirds a few miles down the road.

He said of the dark days in the late 1980s and 1990s: “You had lads starting to go down to watch Cardiff City and supporting them and some going to Bristol City or Bristol Rovers if they couldn’t face following Cardiff.

“I don’t want Newport kids to follow Cardiff, I believe you should support your local side.”

The charity has a “cradle to grave” programme of events aimed at everyone in the community, beginning with Soccer Tots at the age of three to walking football which has evergreen participants still going strong in their 80s.

They also deliver sessions for more than 7,000 children at schools all over the area over the course of a year.

To find out more about what County in the Community has to offer, go to: www.newport-county.co.uk/club/community.

It will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary at Rodney Parade on Friday, September 22 between 10am and 1pm.

Local MPs, Members of the Senedd and councillors have been invited along with guests from English Football League, Premier League, FAW, Gwent PCC, Children in Need, Feathers Association and funding partners.

People from the community will speak about their experiences with the charity.