NEVER a dull moment covering the County, what a week it has been, so much to talk about.

This time last week I was optimistically hoping that Newport’s win at Carlisle was going to be a turning point for the Exiles and for boss Terry Butcher.

What do I know? Certainly not that Carlisle are now a demonic force for managers, play them, beat them, one more game, you’re out on your ear. Just ask Brendan Rodgers.

Not that County were about to produce the worst performance I’ve seen from the boys in Amber since somewhere around the time John Cornforth was manager, hammered at home to a Crawley side that needed to do very little to dominate for 90 minutes.

Not that Newport would indeed meet the deadline and become a supporter-owned club, the sixth in the Football League, smashing their target of £195,000.

Indeed, the Supporters’ Trust beat their total by over £40,000, a staggering achievement and one that obviously provided the wriggle room to make a seriously big decision.

And on that issue, I’m a little torn, but we’ll come back to the rights and wrongs of the Supporters’ Trust making big decisions without consulting the masses.

In terms of the actual ‘was it right to sack Butcher issue’ I’d have called the decision hasty and risky before Tuesday, but after the game, might well have changed my tune. The performance was woeful, Butcher’s choices of formation and substitutions baffling and his body language was of a guy who knew the writing was on the wall.

His post-match press conference smacked of a manager who didn’t have the answers as to how and why things had gone so spectacularly wrong.

And the Trust clearly felt an opportunity existed to strike while the iron was hot, in terms of having the right candidate, for right now.

Jason Turner, County’s CEO, probably expected his good mate “Shez,” to have long-since found work in Leagues One or Two somewhere in the Wars of the Roses area, but it hasn’t worked out like that, and a candidate with an impeccable CV is available right now. Very, very similar to the circumstances that saw Justin Edinburgh appointed, in fact.

Sheridan’s CV, in particular the fact that the bulk of his success has come in League Two, the fact he has a pre-existing relationship with the CEO, the fact he’s available without compensation being payable, makes for an exceptionally attractive candidate.

Many County fans probably feel the club has more chance of survival now than they did a few days ago and that can only bode well for a positive future. The fans have to believe.

It’s important to take a moment to pay tribute in terms of the Trust, both to the people who drove the project – and worked tirelessly – and more importantly, the County fans and local businesses who showed unequivocally and unquestionably that they value tremendously having a football club in their city to be proud of.

The money the fans raised in such a short space of time was simply phenomenal and that effort can’t be wasted, this has to be the beginning of a new Newport County AFC, an inclusive and transparent one.

And to that end, if we are totally honest, we aren’t off to a great start with the Trust committee members – the right there, right now representatives, rather than necessarily the right people for the board long term – have made an almighty decision, sacking a manager, his staff and making this a truly fresh start all round.

I think they did so for the right reasons, a fear of relegation and I think they did so safe in the knowledge that the majority of supporters would back the decision as being the right one.

However, while all that may be so, this very much has to be an isolated incident until elections are held for board composition in three months time.

In putting the Supporters’ Trust in power, in signing as members and donating money and buying community shares, the County faithful have endorsed an ideology, not a group of individuals.

We haven’t voted for the current Trust committee to be making key and seismic decisions about the future of the club and this very much needs to be considered a one-off.

And it also simply can’t fly to be evasive in regard to Terry Butcher’s situation, with the club yet to clarify whether he’s been sacked, or placed on gardening leave. Is he still being paid a salary? Or has he been paid compensation? What about his assistants? These questions were put to the Trust in Sheridan’s first press conference and haven’t yet been answered. They must be. We are assured they will be.

Because everything from the Trust now must be about honesty and transparency, making sure the fans are put fully in the picture about every facet of the club they now own.

The future suddenly looks far brighter for the Exiles, it truly is a fresh start in every regard.

The recovery process has begun, on and off the field.