THERE are students of the game and then there is Lee Harrison, County’s new assistant manager and self-confessed football obsessive.

The 39-year old former Barnet and Leyton Orient goalkeeper has played over 400 games as a professional and now links up with Newport County as their new assistant manager after doing similar roles at Underhill and with Hayes and Yeading last term.

And it wasn’t just a meeting of the minds while coaching at Dagenham part time that attracted him to working with Anthony Hudson, Harrison’s interest in coaching similar to that of the Exiles’ rookie boss.

“I got my A license when I was 21, the same time as Alan Curbishley when I was at Charlton,” he explained.

“I got a lot of stick at the time, my teammates were going to Spain and I was heading to Lilleshall!

“I did a conversion course since then and now I have my A license for goalkeeping coaching as well.

“But it’s not all about qualifications. When I did my conversion course I was on it with Terry Venables and Martin O’Neil. The qualification doesn’t mean anything, you have to strive to be a good coach and have to work extremely hard at it.

“But for me football has just been my career it’s been my passion… I’ve been obsessed by it since I was a little kid.”

Despite a career almost exclusively based in the London or Essex areas, Billericay boy Harrison knows a lot about Newport County.

“I know most people give it the big ‘it’s a huge club,’ speech when they join, but from school I’ve been obsessed by football and I followed the Newport story,” he explains.

“I remember Somerton Park, Tommy Tynan, the quarter-final of the Cup Winners’ Cup against Carl Zeiss Jena, all of that stuff,” he said.

“I know what kind of club we have joined, a league club in all but name who have good ambition and a terrific fanbase. It was very sad what happened to them in the late 80s. But I saw first hand this season in December when we came down with Hayes and County won 2-1 that they are back and a club on the up.

“It was a cold, horrible day and yet there were 2500 people there. That’s support that belongs in the Football League without a doubt.”

l Keep your eyes peeled for part two of our interview with Lee where he explains his relationship with Hudson, County’s transfer policy and why he’s picking Tottenham Hotspur over Barrow.