A mark of 8.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stevie Bausor is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
François-Joseph Sollacaro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jordan Graham. 2‑1 against Walsall, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Jordan Graham
The phone has started ringing about Ged Garner again, and this time the name on the line is PSIM. Newport County are listening politely and promising nothing.
François-Joseph Sollacaro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Jordan Graham was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Courtney Baker-Richardson is a Newport County player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Newport County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andy Cannon is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Exeter City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danny Andrew and Exeter City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Exeter City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ed Turns is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.