I CAN’T express how disgusting I find it that I continue to read Newport County AFC fans on our website and other forums expressing the view that “perhaps relegation would be for the best.”

There is idiocy, but this is the next level. If you think relegation could end up benefitting the Exiles and that it is no big deal if they slip back out of the Football League, you really need to re-evaluate your position.

Relegation isn’t a choice, it’s a punishment. And promotion from the Conference is far from guaranteed, regardless of how good you are or indeed, how deep your pockets are.

If County go down, they might not come back. That’s the simple truth and the more perilous their situation is off the field, the more that translates.

If Newport go down this term, with a Supporters’ Trust ownership still finding their feet, then you’d find few punters willing to bet on the Exiles making a return.

Indeed, you’d find more punters happy to part with a few quid on County being relegated back to the Conference South, rather than doing a Bristol Rovers and bouncing back instantly.

It’s trite and cliché, perhaps, to simply list clubs with bigger fanbase and finance than Newport who have languished in non-league for ions. But I’m going to do it anyway!

Luton Town, average attendance nearly 9000, it took them four seasons, while our Welsh rivals up the way, Wrexham, whose average attendance last term was comparable to Newport’s despite being a tier lower, have now been outside looking in since 2008.

Grimsby have been down there since 2010, Lincoln since 2011, while the likes of Forest Green have spent more than some frugal and small nations and still haven’t been able to achieve promotion to League Two.

Newport’s success in getting promoted wasn’t just some lucky occurrence; it was the result of 25-years of hard work from people, supporters just like you, who fought tooth and nail to get the club to the level that someone like Les Scadding would take an interest.

Scadding’s fortune helped to push Newport over the line and back to the Promised Land, the elite 92 of English football.

You should be dreaming about one day playing Cardiff City and Swansea City as divisional rivals, or owning your own ground, or simply sustaining your tenure in the Football League until you become part of the furniture. Those are aspirations.

But pining for a fresh start? For a return to the non-league scene and trips to Braintree and Welling? You would have to be absolutely bloody bonkers to hope or think there is any silver lining whatsoever to returning to the wilderness.

No more highlights on a Saturday night, no more radio commentaries, no more featuring on games consoles, the Exiles would be back to being an irrelevance to anyone who doesn’t support them, a tin pot club with a hardcore of less than a thousand fans. The club I covered for six-years, in fact.

Why, after scratching and clawing your way to the Football League, would you be already throwing in the towel? We aren’t even in the middle of September yet, this situation is bad, but far from irretrievable.

The club needs your support, physical and financial, more than ever, a point expressed again and again, with £37,000 already raised by supporters who know that they must seize their chance to forge their own future for their football club.

In the short term, a collective support is essential, because this group of players is both short in numbers and quality, County currently looking at least a defender, midfielder and striker light of what they’ll require to survive.

It’s going to be a tough road, of that there is no doubt, both in completing a takeover of the club and in the longer-term this season, maintaining League Two status.

But the alternative squanders everything so many worked so hard to achieve.

If some of the supporters don’t have the stomach for a fight, the club is doomed.

You all need to stand together.

Relegation? It’s never, ever a choice.