Newport County v Bradford City: History boys seeking to secure more milestones in 2025

Tuesday night’s home victory over Accrington Stanley registered an eighth successive league win at home for the first time since 1954 and there has also been a milestone on their travels as well.

Their triumph at Carlisle United last month was their first success at Brunton Park in almost 40 years since August 1985.

Next Tuesday, City are seeking to book their first-ever appearance in the EFL Trophy in its various guises - they visit favourites Birmingham City, while later this month, they make their maiden trip to EFL newboys Bromley.

Before then, Graham Alexander’s side call in at Rodney Parade against a home side who have won their last four league games.

Defender Brad Halliday, part of the side who won 4-1 on their last visit to Newport in September 2023 – Mark Hughes’ last win in charge - said: "It will be a tough little fixture for us and we’ve got to do everything within our power to make sure we are rested and go into each game with the belief we can win the game, keep clean sheets and keep getting three points.

"I can’t remember the stat at the time, but the performance at Carlisle, we hadn’t won there for so long and for us to go there and get a 1-0 win, the performance and game wasn’t pretty that day and if I am honest, they were probably the better team.

"But we walked away with three points. That’s all we are bothered about really.”

The encouraging thing for City is that they are finding different ways to win.

There was silk and steel in last weekend’s victory over Harrogate, while the recent successes against Accrington and Carlisle were chiselled out.

Halliday added: "We are finding ways to win games and we touched on it in the changing rooms when I was talking to Richard (Smallwood) about how in previous seasons, we’ve maybe looked back on that (Accrington) game and sort of not come away with a result. It feels like we have turned a corner in that aspect and it’s looking positive.

"When we do go 1-0 up, we back ourselves all day to keep that clean sheet and hang on for the result.”