NEWPORT County are preparing for an exodus of players as financial woe grips Spytty Park.

Striker Carl Wilson-Denis has already left the club after agreeing a severance package yesterday, hot on the heels of Eddie Duah's departure on Wednesday as well as midfielder Jon Coates who left this morning.

And now Argus Sport understands big name players Jamie Moralee and Jason Bowen are set to be asked to follow in the coming week.

This comes on the back of players rejecting a second proposal of a wage cut made at a meeting on Tuesday night after the original request made for a 30 per cent reduction was rejected in December.

County finance director Martyn Kings admits the club is now caught in a "catch-22" position.

"The club is having to seriously revaluate the budget," Kings admitted. "We have got to reduce it, simple as that.

"Eddie (Duah) and now Carl (Wilson-Denis) have left and we are looking at other areas of bringing down costs.

"It is a catch-22 position because we are in the business of putting a team on the pitch. Bt the simple fact is that we have to balance the books because if we don't do that, we won't have a club.

"Mistakes have been made with regard to projections and targets and lessons have been harshly learned, but we are by no means the only club in the division that are going through this.

"We are already planning our projections with regard to attendances and income up to June 2006 and in hindsight it would have been better if more time had been spent doing that for this season.

"The facts are that we and other clubs maybe misjudged the nature of new division regarding the salaries being paid.

"It will be the case that the players who will come in either on loan deals or short-term contracts this season or signing for next season, will not be on the same kind of money that was paid out before the start of this one."

Kings denied this season's budget was calculated taking for granted progression in the cup competitions.

Dumped out of the FA Cup, FA Trophy and FAW Premier Cup cost the club more than £30,000, but Kings admitted the drop in crowds was a factor.

The main problem now is what kind of side manager John Cornforth will be left with but Kings has faith in him, starting with a Nationwide South trip to Cambridge City tomorrow to deal with (kick-off 3pm).

"We are lucky we have a manager in John Cornforth who doesn't grumble but gets on with a tough job," he said. "Unfortunately he is the one left to carry the can and he has his hands tied to a certain extent.

"There are not many managers who would put up with having the goalposts moved as many times. It could be we don't have a lot of experienced players but John is the ideal man to get the best out of the youngsters.

"We are lucky he knows what football is all about and we are learning a lot from him after his experiences at Exeter City, where he worked under difficult circumstances.

"We have made changes to our commercial strategy and we will all do what we can to make up for gaps in the budget if it means we can bring in players like Antonio Corbisiero (on loan from Swansea) on short-term deals."