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

Can we move the discussions about the red to its own thread?

Enjoyed the game. Adaramola completely different to Wright, although he does seem to over complicate things with step overs etc. I can see him losing the ball. Perhaps just a bit over excited on his debut. Great to see a wingback running and beating a player and have some genuine pace. Seems to have a little niggle in him too. Time will tell, but overall I’m impressed.

Mellon I thought got better as he started to understand more how we play. Off the ball so much more intelligent than Kav, and also holds up the ball going forward rather than his back to goal. Him and Leigh could be a good link up. I was impressed again with Leigh. Does a lot of hard graft.

Great to see us not rolling over. A really hard working performance that deserved a point.

 

Thought we were incredible yesterday... looked the far more likely to score, despite being a man down. Think if we'd have been thrown Pointon into the mix too for the 90 we'd have run up the scoreboard.

Mellon looked a bit rusty at times, and isn't as good at pressing as Kav, but I think will be a really potent threat in the run in. Leigh ran himself into the ground and won pretty much everything in the air and most 50/50s whilst showing some really nice touches. Smallwood, Sarce and the defense were solid as rocks - The game could still be going on now and Newport still wouldn't have had a sniff - and Tayo looks like an absolute beast.

All in all a good day at the office, even if we couldn't get the three points we deserved.

 

Exactly what we needed when playing with ten men. He enabled us to get up the pitch and no doubt they were worried about him.

Same with Mellon really, the ball stuck much better up the top. If Kav had played he'd have had little impact up top and the ball would just have kept coming back to our half and being under pressure.

 

Mellon played well looked a bit rusty at times which is to be expected but you can see he is a goalscorer as he looks to shoot at every opportunity. What would be interesting to have seen is if Mellon would press like Kav does if it had been 11 v 11 as he didn't do much of that when we went a man down nor did he do so before when we had a full team.

 

I wonder if Kav could play either side of the front three with Mellon in the middle.

It may be tricky initially as he's got used to a certain way of playing centrally now but if Cook were fot he wouldn't be central so that might be the only option for him to get more minutes?

 

Kav has the energy for the press, but doesn't have the technical ability or awareness of Leigh. If he doesn't play the central role I think he's a second half sub for Mellon on yesterday's showing.

 

I feel you're being very harsh Kev. For me, the fact he actually won some ball up top and at times made it stick will benefit our pressing game no end as Patto, Sarc and Pointon will be able to have a starting position much higher rather than it going straight back over their heads and negating any press.

Overall though I thought Mellon was the presence we needed. He harassed defenders, win headers, brought others into play and had the confidence to run at multiple defenders at times while also getting a few shots off. I'm not sure, for a man who's not played too much football recently, what more we can ask.

 

Presence is definitely what he provided and what we've been missing since Cooky's injury. I said last night that he still looks to be lacking a bit of match sharpness which is understandable given his lack of game time recently, but other than that, I thought he had a very good game. Can't wait to see him when we are playing 11 v 11 rather than 10 v 12.

 

What a squad we've got now when we are free of injuries and suspensions, I think we are all set now for a good run in, I'm lovin' the new found attitude and desire...let's hope so ....

 

Agree would love to see him alongside Cook

 

Fair enough, I perhaps expected more?

 

Apart from the first 15 minutes Newport were very poor, never seen a team with 10 men have so much space and time, it was like we had the extra man at times.

 

A couple more thoughts on yesterdays game. Mellon didn't look match sharp but he won more headers in the first 10 mins than Kav has all season. His shooting sadly was poor. Leigh had his best game, some really nice touches. I think a bigger show of intent would have been to bring on Patto rather than Walker, and gone for the win. Most of all I think it showed that apart from the striker role, we do have genuine strength in depth. 4 changes and would still likely have won had it not been 10 v 12.

 

Unfortunately Cooky is injured though Kev

 

Put Patto on second half and go for the win. Newport were awful and there for the taking.

Defence is solid, good to see Rom back.
Rom and Tayo give us pace and mobility.

 

If only Dave , we won’t ever know.. I think you could be right though.

 

I was more interested in the offside... none of our players complained so maybe it was....very very tight methinks

 

Kavanagh’s plus points is his energy and movement he presses from the front which helps the team out

 

It wasn’t an easy game with ten men, admittedly, but it might be a case of ‘short term pain’ with both while they get up to speed.

im just a big Walker fan.