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

They were white within minutes. Poor, very poor.

 

Yes the rain was very heavy indeed.
My coat still hasn't dried out this morning!
You can see them starting to turn white in Stafford's picture if you look closely.
So I think the lines were painted green by the ground staff before kick off but whatever they used couldn't cope with the rain at all.

 

It was good to see the referee assess the situation and act with common sense though 1 set of fans will disagree

 

Swindon away, doesn't worry me. They play the most open football of any team - having the best average SoT, but of course this means they are notorious for leaking goals.

 

I thought out of the 3 in midfield yesterday Smallwood was better than Gilliead, who was rightly subbed.
Clayton was awesome again.

 

Clayton has been a very good signing as I'm hoping Derbyshire will turn out to be, he could be back by the Hartlepool game.

 

Noticed that Smallwood had Kinesio tape on one thigh. He might be carrying a bit of an injury. I think East has done very well when he has replaced Smallwood in the last few matches.

 

if this is the case, do Newport have a case to answer, for an incorrectly marked playing surface

 

Absolutely, not seen it happen at other venues in the rain though?
Is there a case for the club taking it further, ie could we get the yellow null and voided?

Hats off for making the long trip,only to get razzed on wouldn’t be fun!

 

Yes Gilly has gone off the boil of late after being the most consistent. I thought during the game, what a pair of inspirational signings Stubbs and Clayton have been.
Clayton didn’t put a foot wrong throughout the 90 imho.

 

Yes I saw that too.

 

As far as I know Newport is a Desso pitch which is not classed a artificial. Don’t know the current regs but a number of non artificial pitches are around complete wit RU or RL markings. Brentford, Wigan, Huddersfield, Coventry at one point, Bristol City and possibly more so suggest either rule change or no monitor action. Agree yesterday was poor especially as my earlier post that no more rugby until October.

 

We were sat a couple rows from the pitch in the covered stand, and was still getting wet. There were quite a few spare seats so we moved to the back 2nd half. Absolutely baffled me why none of the fans behind the goal didn’t come over for shelter too. They had a perfect view of the spare seats from where they were stood

The Rodney bar was a fantastic touch for away fans, especially in the wet & cold. Plenty space to gather before KO and at half time, very warm, and a proper bar serving decent drinks. Bit of a social club feel. Beats the kiosks in the Midland Road stand hands down!

 

Certainly has in the last 3 games. Perhaps the amount of games in a short period of time impacting him as it really looked like it was for Walker also. No mid-week game this round is what some of our squad need.

 

I couldn't see any seats spare in the dry from where we were. Believe me we would gave moved to them if I had seen them!!

 

Very few people were actually sat down so there were plenty of gaps to stand in

 

This echoes my point in the 25 Yearers thread. Plenty of clubs have cosy, comfortable bars selling reasonable beer at decent prices and welcome away fans into them.
We have horrible great cheerless corporate suites and a concrete & steel aircraft hanger selling pish beer in soft plastic cups.
Hardly surprising that most fans choose to spend their money in local pubs instead.

 

The point is a lot of these places you mention especially around the lower leagues, they tend to be tiny, built in converted sheds or are akin to a cafeteria that sell beer in bottles that cost a months wages. Colchester springs to mind. The best one I thought was Southend, otherwise I prefer to stick to local pubs. None of these places are capable of holding more than a couple of hundred?

City would really to struggle to have a venue capable of holding large numbers of “drinkers” for use once a fortnight. Remember it’s all been tried before?

 

Yes you're probably right. The way the stands are designed doesn't help either. Some other clubs (eg Stevenage) have comfortable ground floor bars built into the side of their ground, but we'd probably need several to service the demand, if they were any good.

I struggle to remember which grounds are which, but I've been to a number that have nice, accessible bars selling reasonable draught beer at decent prices, not overpriced bottles.

I'm probably particularly jaundiced about this issue at the moment because the club are charging me an extra sixty quid to subsidise crappy suites that I never use.