IT’S been another quiet week covering Newport County AFC!

Since my previous column eight days ago we’ve seen (deep breath) yet another managerial change, victory in a relegation six-pointer, the club’s first FA Cup third round appearance in 30 years and now a huge cash windfall thanks to Conor Washington’s move to QPR.

Life is certainly never dull with the Exiles but the first three weeks of 2016 have had enough twists and turns to keep even the EastEnders scriptwriters going for a while.

John Sheridan’s departure for Coronation Street country was not unexpected but it did come six months earlier than the County board had hoped.

To some Exiles fans he’ll always be a Dirty Den-style villain for leaving the club in the midst of a League Two relegation scrap.

And it’s certainly true that his move to Oldham Athletic could hardly have come at a worse time – directly before Saturday’s huge game at York and Monday’s massive cup clash with Blackburn Rovers.

But his stay in South Wales was always going to be a temporary one and it has ultimately proved beneficial for both parties.

He revived a side that was at rock bottom at the end of Terry Butcher’s reign, both in terms of confidence and league position.

With some astute loan signings Sheridan guided County from 24th to 20th and to their best cup run since 1986.

And he’s been rewarded with his long-stated wish to move back to his native North West being granted.

The way the move was conducted by Oldham and Sheridan left a bad taste in the mouth (although I’m quite partial to a Costa Coffee myself) but it’s hard to blame him for going.

If you were offered a better-paid job on a longer contract at a bigger company that was closer to home would you turn it down?

The good thing from County’s point of view is that they seem to have learned from the mistakes of 12 months ago and had a contingency plan in place.

Jimmy Dack was a ‘see how it goes’ appointment in the wake of Justin Edinburgh’s departure.

Needless to say, it didn’t go well and Dack admitted that he had never wanted to be a number one.

Warren Feeney is another assistant stepping up to the top job but, crucially, he has been a manager before at Linfield in his native Northern Ireland.

He has made no secret of his ambitions to manage at a high level and once he arrived at the club in October he was always earmarked as Sheridan’s successor.

He’s in the job earlier than he expected but he’s made a highly impressive start to his reign.

Like Dack he provides continuity for the players but he’s also brought in his own assistant in Andy Todd to ensure that the squad has someone new to impress.

The performance wasn’t great at York but the result was huge and it was the other way round against Rovers.

It’s also refreshing that the new manager has trusted the youngsters and been rewarded with superb performances from Mitchell Beeney, Aaron Collins and Tom Owen-Evans.

But he knows that with injuries and suspensions mounting he has to be busy in the loan market between now and the end of January to ensure County stay above the dreaded drop zone.

The news that Washington has completed his move to Queens Park Rangers should certainly help as it means the club stands to rake in a significant chunk of change thanks to a sell-on fee agreed by the previous set-up in January 2014.

With the interim board staying tight-lipped at present we may not know the real figure until we see the accounts.

But, if various reports are to be believed, the Exiles could net anything between £450,000 and £1m – a game-changing sum of money for a club like County.

It has to be used to secure the long-term future of the club and, in the short-term, to keep Feeney’s men in the Football League.

I can understand the board’s reluctance to go public on the exact amount because it hardly helps Feeney’s negotiating position if rival club’s know he has X amount burning a hole in his pocket.

And the manager is already finding it tough to bring in the recruits he wants, revealing to the Argus on Monday night that he had been snubbed by Newport-boy Ellis Harrison.

On the face of it, Harrison’s decision to join Hartlepool on loan instead of his hometown club looks perverse.

But he wants game-time and the fact that Pools have seven fixtures during his one-month loan, compared to County’s five, could well have been a deciding factor.

Harrison may also feel he can flourish in Hartlepool where he can simply concentrate on his football away from the distractions of life in his home city.

Good luck to him and good luck to Washington, whose rapid rise from the United Counties Premier Division to the Championship, and possibly Euro 2016 with Northern Ireland, is a real football fairy tale.

I was the first journalist to interview Conor as a professional footballer after he quit life as a postman and arrived at Rodney Parade for a ‘nominal fee’ from St Ives Town in October 2012.

That has turned out to be the best bit of business Justin Edinburgh did as Exiles boss and credit too to Les Scadding for the initial outlay and Tim Harris and Howard Greenhaf for negotiating the sell-on clause.

But, most of all, credit to the player himself – one of the nicest, most humble and hard-working pros you’ll ever meet.

Knock ‘em dead Conor!