FORMER Newport County manager Peter Nicholas (pictured) last night told fans he was not to blame for the financial problems the club is now enduring.

The Exiles are having to cut their budget after miscalculations earlier in the season and many supporters still point the finger at the 73-times capped Nicholas, who was sacked five weeks into the season with County 12th in the Nationwide South.

"I am not to blame for the current mess at Newport County," Nicholas stated. "The problems are the board's own doing and the club are worse off now than when I left.

"There is obviously something not right with the commercial side of things because the board say they did not count the money from cups.

"The chairman (Chris Blight) said before the season that I was to go and get the players that would get Newport into the play-offs and it was my job to that.

"Mistakes were made but it was only eight games into the season with a brand new team that needed a bit of time, that was all."

He added: "What they didn't realise was that those players were 100 % behind me and were really not pleased that I had gone. The results afterwards showed that with the cup exits and so on.

"I am a Newport man and want to see them do well and it hurts to see what is going on, but I really think that they would not be where they are just now if I had not been sacked."

Nicholas revealed that the club attempted to sack him in the summer but then made a complete U-turn and gave him license to bring in new players.

He said: "I am not being disrespectful to John Cornforth, because he is a nice guy and has a job to do, but the problems started when they sacked me.

"They asked me to resign in the summer, a week after patting me on the back for getting us into the new league, and I refused. They then came back and gave me a complete vote of confidence.

"I had to clear out players in order to bring in guys that could challenge for the play-offs but they panicked into sacking me after a couple of bad results.

"It was a decision made by people who obviously do not know much about football."

Much has been made of the handing out of contracts to players such as Jon Coates, Jason Bowen and Carl Wilson-Denis, but Nicholas stands by those decisions.

"How do you expect to bring in quality players if you don't give them the stability of a year's contract?

"I know what football is all about, I've been in management for 12 years. The budget for this season was still half of what it was when I took over from Tim Harris.

"I managed to bring in £9,000 from player sales like Matt Rose and Neil Davies and halve the wage bill. I was the one who arranged the three-year link up with Manchester United and the match against them last year to help keep the club going.

"I also got Newport into the FAW Premier Cup Final, making £50,000, and in total, I've got the records that show I brought about £160,000 into the club.

"When you look at last year as well when we finished higher that the year before, made the new league with less money on wages, you can't say Peter Nicholas is the guy that brought money problems to the club."