PAUL Bignot’s return to the Newport County AFC starting XI for the first time in five and a half years on Saturday provided a reminder of just how far the club has come in that time.

Bignot’s previous start in an amber shirt (more orange back then) in a competitive fixture came in April 2011.

County, then managed by Anthony Hudson, were meandering towards a mid-table finish in the Conference having blown a chance of promotion in the wake of Dean Holdsworth’s exit to Aldershot Town that January.

The Exiles beat Barrow 5-0 in front of 1,331, then considered a bumper crowd, at Spytty Park with Darryl Knights netting twice.

Skipper Gary Warren also scored, as did Sam Foley and Kerry Morgan, while Bignot went off injured after half an hour and was replaced by Jamie Collins.

None of that team are still at the club and the changes on and off the pitch show the rapid progress that has been made since then.

After Bignot’s big money move to Championship Blackpool in the summer of 2011, Hudson’s brief reign came to a crashing halt that September.

County looked in real danger of slipping back down to the Conference South before the arrival of Justin Edinburgh and Les Scadding.

The rest – two Wembley appearances, the move to Rodney Parade, promotion to the Football League – is history.

There was understandable disappointment at the way last season ended and on Saturday too as County failed to beat 10-man Hartlepool United.

But it is all relative and it sometimes pays to take stock of how far the club has come.

Since Edinburgh left for Gillingham in February 2015 it has been tough going for County fans who had become used to success.

By my calculations the Exiles have won only 15 League Two matches in the 18 months since Edinburgh’s departure, with a paltry five league victories at Rodney Parade in that time.

That miserable run at home is having a clear effect on the number of people coming through the turnstiles – with fewer than 2,000 County fans for the recent visit of Crewe Alexandra.

But would any supporter in 2011 have been disappointed to be told that in five years’ time the club would be entering its fourth consecutive season in the Football League? I don’t think so.

Bignot himself has endured a tough time while he’s been away from South Wales.

Having helped Holdsworth’s side romp to the Conference South title in 2010 and picked up a host of individual awards for his performances the following season he was linked with moves to Leicester City and Crystal Palace.

He eventually joined Blackpool for a fee believed to be £100,000 but never got the chance to show what he could do at Bloomfield Road.

A successful loan spell at tonight’s opponents Plymouth Argyle followed before he dropped back into non-league with Grimsby Town.

Next up for the nomadic Brummie was a short stint in Iceland with Keflavik before red tape meant he was forced to play in the Conference North for Solihull Moors – managed by his brother Marcus – last season.

And when the chance came to come back to Newport this summer he was determined to take it, even turning down offers from elsewhere to try to impress Exiles boss Warren Feeney as a trialist in pre-season.

“When the opportunity popped up I wanted to get it done,” Bignot told me after Saturday’s match.

“The gaffer invited me down and it was a gamble on my part because I was turning deals down to take the opportunity.

“But it was a gamble I was willing to take and thankfully something came from it.

“It’s been good to be back,” he added. “There’s no one left on the field from when I was last here but the club has progressed in a great way.

“Obviously I’m proud to be a part of it and I’m back again to achieve something.

“It’s early days but the quality is there in the squad.

“Nobody wants to hear the same old chit-chat that we can do this or that – it’s all about doing it on the pitch and that’s all we can do.”

Now 30, Bignot, who was released by both Crewe and Kidderminster Harriers before making his name in Newport, knows the value of perseverance.

In a column he wrote for The Football League Paper this year he said: “The motto of the story is never give up on what you want to do.

“I could have quit at the first, second, third or fourth hurdle. Pain does exist, but it does not last forever.

“Never look back once you have made your decision and, from every difficult situation you go through, if you look deep enough there is an equivalent seed of success to come from it.”

It is very early days but there could yet be seeds of success for Bignot and teammates this season.