The Voice - Match preview Newport County vs Bradford City Saturday 11th March 2023 @ 3:00pm

Good!

 

How hard is it for the keeper, he only has the penalty area line to think about, so i thought we probably got away with one there, on the other hand, how hard would it have been to cover up the rugby lines properly.

 

Yep! Delayed an important overnight stay meeting until the following week. I ain't missing this one!!!

 

All of our rivals meet more times than we do them. Indeed, apart from us, Mansfield play every team in the Top 7.

Nobody seems consistent enough to claim the autos.

 

And that's the thing there is no consistency hence the League table stats.
Everyone can literally beat each other the quality of football is so poor.
It will inevitably go down to the wire.
On the subject of line markings did the referee do a proper pitch inspection.
I was stood on the back row of the Bisley stand and believe me the rugby lines were a disgrace.Their ground staff and match officials failed big time yesterday not the players.

 

Agree. Ironically it seems Clayton has fixed some of the issues around our midfield 3 however the person I would see correct to drop, Smallwood, is unlikely to happen this close to the end of the season. Equally if Hughes was to switch to a two instead of a three, Clayton and Smallwood wouldn’t be the answer IMO. Clayton & East/Gillead preferable.

What I do believe is Hughes trusts the back 4 and Clayton so see little change there barring injuries. Is he brave enough to change a formation with limited games left? I’m not so sure…..

 

Agree, but what I would say is Clayton looks to run out of steam around the 60/70 minute mark

 

In your opinion of course.

 

More the latter Andy. Talking before the game I was told there is no more Rugby on that pitch until October. The reason for this is Gwent Dragons didn't finish high enough in their 'league' to qulify for home games in the various knock out competitions and will be playing all remaining games away.
The attempt to cover the white marking with green was ineffective with white clearly showing all over the pitch when they could have completely covered the white over.
In my view the Ref got it right and further when he spotted pre-match that the dugout area seating contravened EFL rules and made them remove a number of seats.

 

Rugby marking might have been well covered at the start of the game (although @Foghornleghorn above says they were not) during the game they became less and less noticeable because of the constant rain , I thought Mark Hughes comment after the game were bang on good common sense refereeing.

"I think it's supposed to be blue or green, but the rain had washed it away.

"I think the referee displayed common sense. He understood that it wasn't intentional.

"Harry genuinely thought he was in the penalty area. It wasn't deliberate and I think the referee got it right."

 

It would have been rescinded on appeal if he got a red. Clearly those lines were inadequately treated. Deliberately?
We have seen hundreds of games played on mixed sport pitches, yes you can see the vague markings, but those yesterday were akin to a US football field of play.
Doesn’t excuse anything , result etc, but it does show the ref used his brain. Should he have stopped the game until the lines were treated again?

 

There is not a chance Hughes would have said the same if the situation were reversed. He'd be straight out with 'rules are rules' and expecting an apology from the ref.

 

I’m thinking that Swindon maybe out of the race by the time we play them and might just lack that bit of intensity. Our prospects though will depend on wether we can win most of our home games.

 

You could tell by the way Harry came out to gather the ball he was under no pressure he thought he was within his goal area, now if he'd been charging out to stop a Newport attack I think the referee would have looked at it differently.

 

I think Hughes has been proved right in the past with regards referees (apologises for getting decisions wrong twice I believe) I think he was also right with his opinion about yesterday incident, as @Kevin1954 says the markings were very much like the old days of football in America when games were played at American Football stadiums.

 

The Bolton side that went up recently were decent in my opinion.

 

With the importance of Cook to this team, I wouldn’t be surprised if Northampton looked to nobble him when we play them in April. There’s a good chance we’ll meet them in the playoffs. Take him out of the equation and we’re mid table at best.

 

Who knows, Cookies goals might have dried up by then and we have Derbyshire and Oliver banging them in

 

I am in agreement with @Foghornleghorn the rugby lines were clearly visible before kick off.