The Voice - Match preview #31: Newport County vs Bradford City Saturday 15th February 2025 3:00pm

It's easy to say in hindsight, but I think we could have brought Patto on instead of Walker and really gone for the win. I like Walker but he looked slow. Patto would have terrified them.

 

And Patto would have put away one of the chances that Walker had on the edge of the box. Walker annoyed me today because as fans, we all wanted him back in the mix and he constantly made poor decisions when he came on

 

Yes I think a yellow would have been justified, that said we were better after the sending off !

 

Sarce's toe poke for the disallowed goal wasn't too shabby

 

That was my thinking too

 

It's only 2 in the league and 1 in the trophy, all of them have been in injury time when we've been hanging on for a draw/win. 1 was 90+7 against Crewe when we were down to 10 men, the next was 90+6 against Rotherham and then today was 90+6.

They were all good game management to slow the game down and they are all meaningless as they are right at the end of the match and he's not going to get anywhere near a ban for yellow cards

 

Based on what Walker produced when he did come on today, they are.
I've been a critic of Leigh in home games but I thought at Wimbledon and today he's grafted well and produced moments of quality.

 

Are you sure, it seems that he's been carded almost every game but i've no stats to prove that ....

 

Not if one interprets a “ goalscoring opportunity” in my book Park.?

 

And Arsenals ? Even the review panel are inconsistent ?

 

He was 35 yards from goal !?!

 

Same as perhaps?

 

The panel are 3 different people each time giving their subjective opinion on different subjective decisions. Also the panel don't pay any attention to outcomes of other appeals as the appeal in judged on the incident alone. The amount of subjectivity in football seems to have been forgotten and it is ok to have different opinions and they can all be equally valid.

 

Firing squad for the referee.

 

I’m sorry but my interpretation of Mellon is no different to Kavanagh …

 

I've looked at a few stats websites and they all say the same. He's very good at getting close to a yellow card and just avoiding it. There have been a few games where I've questioned how he's managed to avoid a yellow.

I can't remember which of the recent home games it was where the ball went into the fans in the TL Dallas and you could see he was speaking to the supporter to hold onto the ball and hide it whilst he got the ball off the cone then as soon as Walker lined up the goal kick the supporter threw the ball onto the pitch which I'm certain Walker told him to do but he gets away with it as the ref can't prove he did it.

 

I’d disagree. Walker isn’t in shot and the ball’s only a few yards in front of their striker when he gets fouled. It’s not completely central but it’s not too far wide right for him not to have a clear goal scoring opportunity. He’d be 1 on 1 with Walker if he doesn’t get fouled.

I think this is a more a red than not, if you take the various considerations for DOGSO in the laws into account.

 

In isolation this is a great point considering we played the match with 10 men, sacrificed Pointon, rested Pattison, and started with 2 new players.

The worrying stat is that only Cheltenham, Barrow and Tranmere have won fewer away games (2) than us this season (3).

Can we really finish top 3 through our home form alone? We've won 8 in a row at home, in fact we've only lost one all season, but unless our away form takes a turn we're going to have to rely on home wins to see us over the line in these last dozen or so games. I believe we have more away games than home to play too.

 

That’s my ONLY problem today Vin.

GA played the game and team with TUESDAY IN MIND. The league is far and away more important to the club. Pattison , Wright and Kav not playing was a blip in our league progress imho.

 

You don't need to apologise! Is there an issue if he's no different to Kav?
Kavanagh is a decent player, I think melon holds yhe ball up very well inviting others to attack.
They're both very good options to have