NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Westley has described the Rodney Parade pitch as “a disgrace” and “embarrassing” and questioned the level of investment in maintaining the drainage system and playing surface.

A report intended for the English Football League (EFL) and leaked to the Argus earlier this week stated that the current three-way ground-share agreement between County, Newport Gwent Dragons and owners Newport RFC is “unsustainable.”

Leading sports turf consultancy STRI reported that renovation work on the drainage is required in the summer and that, in the long-term, a hybrid surface of grass and artificial fibres would be needed to ensure the pitch remains in a decent condition.

Asked about the report, Westley did not hold back.

“I haven’t got a clue what the solution is,” he said.

“Is the pitch one that should be in the Football League? No, no chance.

“You turn up to play at Rodney Parade and at times it’s embarrassing.

“I don’t know the mechanics of the contract between the club and Rodney Parade or the rules and regulations between the Football League and the football club.

“But the pitch is a disgrace. It’s not a pitch that should be a venue for the Football League.

“It’s not a pitch that enables players to go and play the way they want to go and play.

“You see the ball bouncing off their shins and their knees and as a football manager you have to try to construct a game of football from the dinosaur age.

“It’s no good to you as a coach or a manager – you’re not able to show what you can do, you just have to construct a rugby game for a rugby pitch and do the best that you can do.

“You see opposition players turn up and look at it thinking ‘oh my God’ and, to be frank, you see our lads do the same.

“You see both sides in the warm-up trying to pass the ball and it’s going out of play.

“It’s very difficult to play football on that rugby pitch.

“Somebody came in last weekend and said it was the worst pitch they’ve ever played on, even in non-league.

“They’ve never seen anything like it and it’s not as it should be.”

The fact that County do not have the opportunity to train at Rodney Parade is another frustration to Westley.

“We have to use that to our advantage because we play there more often,” said the Exiles boss.

“But we can’t even train there to get used to the surface and some of our lads have only played there once.

“So it’s not a massive home advantage so we’ve got to try our best to construct a rugby game of football – play for position and into areas, limit mistakes and do the best we can.

“But the pitch is a disgrace, that’s there for all to see.”

Westley suggested that the County board of directors should be questioning the deal they are getting as tenants of Rodney Parade Ltd.

He said: “In fairness, if you’re our football club and you’re going [to Rodney Parade Ltd] ‘well look, you’ve accepted a contract to enable us to play Football League games on your pitch – have you really put the investment in to put this pitch in order? Is this pitch really being looked after in a way that is deserving of you accepting money from us to play Football League matches on it?’

“For me, if I was setting up that contract and it was a contract that I’d negotiated, I’d be asking some serious questions as a football club about whether the investment has gone in and whether we’re getting value for money.

“Because it isn’t a Football League surface. It is a rugby surface prepared for rugby teams and not prepared for a Football League team.

“I haven’t seen the contract and it isn’t my business.

“The guys who are at the top of the club who negotiated that arrangement, I’m sure they’re feeling let down and that things aren’t in order.

“But I’m sure equally that they’re trying to work towards a solution.

“If you’ve got a stadium right in the middle of town and rugby and football can operate out of the same venue then there’s a sense to cost-sharing.

“But the investment plan into the pitch has got to be right.

South Wales Argus:

“You’ve got to take the wet weather region into account and invest in the drainage and the surface infrastructure or you’ll end up with what we’ve got.

“The idea if bringing it all together in principle makes sense but you can’t bash a pitch as we’re doing with without the drainage and the surface infrastructure.

“The Desso [hybrid] pitch makes sense – you can see how that would be sustainable – but it’s investment and the powers that be have got to be able to find that investment.”

Westley also had his say on the Rodney Parade fixture clash on May 6 when his side are due to welcome Notts County in League Two and the Dragons are set to host Cardiff Blues in the Pro12.

As both matches are on the final day of the respective league seasons they have to take place at the same time as all other fixtures.

“I just laugh and think to myself that the authorities could have played a part in not creating the issue,” said Westley.

“What do you do? You’ve got two different clubs in different leagues and the leagues are aware that you’ve got that situation so they give you the same time and same date for the final fixtures.

“It’s an impossible problem. I don’t know how you deal with it.

“As I understand it I think that Football League clubs have to have first call on their home ground for exactly this kind of situation.

“We’ve got first call but the word is that the rugby club might have a [different] view on that because they’ve got their obligations.

“It’s tricky but if we’ve got first call, we’ve got first call.”

But, despite all the talk about Rodney Parade, Westley believes he now has a squad of players who can cope with the adverse conditions.

“To me, all of the talk about the pitch is a distraction and no more,” he added.

“It’s not a big deal to me. I don’t come to work every day and think about the pitch.

“I come to work and think about, whatever pitch we’re playing on, the mentality that we go into games with.

“And I’m really confident that we will be in the right frame of mind, whether it’s home or away.

“We know what we’ve got to do when we’re playing at home.

“It’s not ideal – we’d much sooner play on a better surface – but we’ve got to win our games there.

“We’ve got 33 points to win there and we’re confident that we can make it a fortress towards the end of the season.

“We’re confident that we can develop a game to win at home and we think that the ingredients are here within the squad now to win games at home.

South Wales Argus:

“Young players don’t know how to play on that kind of surface.

“If you bring in experienced pros, or lads whose game is more naturally suited to Rodney Parade, then you give yourself a chance of winning games on that surface.

“And that’s part of what I’ve been trying to do in this window – make some changes that gives me players who have got the ability to go and be effective on that surface.”