It’s been a frustrating season for forward Omari Patrick so far, but that looks set to change following his return to action for the first time since the way game at Hartlepool in October, with a troublesome hamstring injury the cause of his woes.
He certainly looked to get involved as he put a solid 25 minutes under his belt, with trademark runs beyond the back line a constant thorn in the Newport side.
“He looked really lively,” gaffer Paul Simpson said. “He’s been bursting to get out there and I’ve said before, we have to do something to keep him available.
“We want him where he can cause problems to other teams. If we can manage his programme and his minutes so that gets fully up to speed, then hopefully he’ll have a real impact.
“It was always the plan to get him 20 or 30 minutes. I didn’t expect JK to be able to do the 90, even though I don’t think he was tired, to be honest.
“It was good to get Omari back out there and we’ve got to do everything we can to keep him available, because he will cause all sorts of problems with his pace and ability to go past players.
“Alfie McCalmont getting a run-out was also good. I thought it was important to get Jack Robinson and Alfie involved in the game, to get a feel of what it’s like here.”
The pick of the midfield on the day was Callum Guy, who covered just about every inch of ground.
“Callum was excellent,” he told us. “He does a really good job in midfield, especially when we had him in that screening role when we pushed Mellish and Owen Moxon a bit higher up, then changed it again with Gibbo coming inside when we went back to a back three.
“Callum does that role well, he screens, he showed good composure, he was breaking things up and playing first time passes into forward players and letting them go on.
“I just thought that although we had little slices of luck, it was a really solid performance. Not a brilliant footballing performance, particularly first half, but a solid performance that got us a really big win.”
“It’s the adaptability we talk about,” he added. “As with Jon Mellish, he doesn’t think about it too much, he just gets in and does it.
“I think if you have a player who overthinks things it becomes a bit complicated, but Mells is fine, he just gets it and does it.
“I think it helped Callum Guy with another body in there, it helps Owen Moxon because he can play a bit further forward and find those passes and get into good areas.
“And Joel Senior has really stepped up. But I thought he and everybody else looked nervous first half, but he came through it and showed composure.
“He made one covering challenge in the second half which was brilliant. That was a goal opportunity that he saved with that challenge.
“I like what I’ve seen of Joel, he will get better and stronger, more free in his running, he’ll get more confident in his football. You have to remember he came from non-league football anyway, he’s not a lad with 100 league appearances under his belt.
“He’s a young player coming into it. We’ll have two good options in that right back or right wing back slot once Jack Ellis gets fit, then whenever Fin Back gets fit he can come back into the mix as well, and it might be an exciting end to the season if we can stay up there.
“Credit to Joel for what he’s done over the last 10 months to get fit, and now to come into the team and be doing what he’s doing.”
