Bantams boss Graham Alexander ponders change in formation

City have been forced into changing their defensive shape after losing all three starting senior centre-halves to injury.

Aden Baldwin and Neill Byrne are expected to join in with full training today – with former Stockport man Byrne potentially in with a shot of facing the Exiles on Monday.

Alexander said: “They both trained with us on Monday but it was only a light session and they were working with the medical team on match day.

“They’ll train with us again (today) hopefully.

“Aden’s been out longer so we’re a little bit more cautious with him.

“Byrner has only been out a couple of weeks, so I don’t think it will take him too long to get up to speed.

Neill Byrne might have a chance of playing against Newport (Image: Tom Pearson)

“He’s slightly ahead of Aden at the moment but we’ll just assess them when we train in the next couple of days and see what we think.”

Paul Huntington’s arrival has also boosted the options to give Alexander the opportunity to go back to his favoured set-up.

The 37-year-old was named on the bench at Morecambe but the City boss decided against using him.

“I was tempted to start him because it was difficult for us on Saturday,” added Alexander.

“I thought he would struggle to play the full 90 minutes.

“He could play for a while but I thought it would be a negative bringing him off. But he was good to have there in the squad and ready to come on.

“I was thinking about it at half-time because we were a bit all over the shop.

“But I wanted to send the same team straight out to prove they were better than what they showed in the first half and they all did that.

“He will be really valuable for us with his experience, his knowledge and leadership.

“He’s won promotion, he’s played at a higher level and he’s hungry.

“He’s on a short-term deal but that could lead to anything. It’s down to Hunty to give us all he’s got.”

Cheick Diabate and Jack Shepherd have been exposed in the middle of the back four as City struggled at Harrogate and Morecambe – where Shepherd atoned for Diabate’s own goal by heading the equaliser.

Alexander did switch systems during the second half on Tuesday to use Lewis Richards on the left of the three.

“That got Tyreik (Wright) wide as the wing-back and gave us a bit more threat.

“Cheick did great second half stepping in and it gave us an extra attacker, which we like to do.

Tyreik Wright had more space when he went to wing-back (Image: Thomas Gadd)

“Jay (Benn) was already giving us that outlet on the right-hand side but I thought it got Tyreik in a better position as well.

“We worked all pre-season and obviously the end of last season in a back three. We’ve had to change because of the injuries.

“I still believe we’ve played well in a back four and the first two games were good. But Saturday wasn’t or Tuesday.”

Alex Pattison’s absence against Morecambe meant five of the 11 that started the first three league games are currently unavailable to Alexander.

“Any team would feel that,” he admitted. “We could see the consistency of performances.

“It’s hit us hard but I do believe in this group as well and the players who have played in the last two games.

“We haven’t hit the heights. But we showed it at Mansfield that we can play well and showed against Wimbledon we can defend well.

“It’s a fast learning curve in a volatile environment. I believe they are all good players but we need that strength in depth.

“We talked about it in creating the squad. Fingers crossed, those guys come back and that will give us a bit more strength.”