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Loan Round-Up: Wins for seven City loanees
Eleven Norwich City loanees were in action last week with seven of them on the winning sides. Sean Raggett played 180 minutes across Portsmouth’s victories in the Leasing.com Trophy and FA Cup.
Pompey beat Scunthorpe United 2-1 at Fratton Park in the quarter-final of the Leasing.com Trophy (a competition they won in 2019) to line up a semi-final with Exeter City, before winning 4-2 at home to Championship-side Barnsley in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday.
The latter of the results represents the first time Pompey have reached the fifth round of the tournament in ten years (when they got to the final). All in all, a great birthday present for Sean!
Great birthday present 😁⚽️ https://t.co/ng5Jvi9Xzb
— Sean Raggett (@SeanRaggett) January 25, 2020
In League One, Diallang Jaiyesimi had a shot turned into the net by Port Vale’s Leon Legge as Swindon Town won 3-0 on Saturday. The Robins increased the gap over Exeter to two points at the top of the division, but the latter have a game in hand.
In off Legge's leg... @Anthony42Grant's strength 💪@lloyd_isgrove's running 🏃♂️@kaiyneewoolery's flick-on 👊@DJaiyesimi_'s dancing 🕺#STFC 🔴 pic.twitter.com/tvcUE8PPtm
— Swindon Town FC (@Official_STFC) January 26, 2020
Over in the Scottish Premiership, a mighty challenge was presented to Akin Famewo at St. Mirren, as they faced Steven Gerrard’s Rangers at the Ibrox Stadium. Jermain Defoe got the only goal on Wednesday as the hosts took a 1-0 win.
Famewo subsequently kept a clean sheet and played all of St. Mirren’s 0-0 draw at home to Aberdeen, despite facing 13 shots from the visitors. That pair of results keeps St. Mirren just about safe, two points above Hamilton Academical and three above Hearts of Midlothian, who prop up the division.
In the National League North, Simon Power followed his impressive debut with an assist as King’s Lynn Town strengthened their grip at the top of the standings with a 3-0 win at Blyth Spartans. Power wrong-footed an opposing defender before putting the ball on a plate for Adam Marriott to score, keeping the Linnetts four points clear of York City and with two games in hand.
There was a debut to be made by a City loanee, though, with Timi Odusina getting his in a Hartlepool United shirt in the National League. Their 2-0 win at home to Stockport County keeps them comfortably in eleventh place, just three points adrift of Notts County in the play-off places and ten above the relegation zone.
The biggest win of the week, however, went to Aston Oxborough who, after extending his loan deal at Wealdstone FC, kept a clean sheet in their 7-0 demolition of Bath City in the National League South.
He was involved in the first goal when his goal kick eventually dropped for Billy Clifford to open the scoring. Wealdstone remain at the top of the league and are convincingly ten points clear of Havant & Waterlooville.
Rocky Bushiri played his part in St. Truidense VV’s 3-1 win away to Royal Excel Mouscron on Saturday, meaning the former are now tenth in the Belgian top tier, safely in the Europa League play-off places and five points off qualifying for the title play-offs.
Elsewhere in Europe, Charlie Gilmour returned from a one game suspension to be involved in SC Telstar’s 1-0 win at home to FC Oss on Friday. Telstar moved up to eighth, just two points off of sixth in Netherlands’ second tier.
Daniel Barden was part of the Bury Town side to come from 3-1 down at half-time to draw 3-3 with Hullbridge Sports in the Isthmian League North on Tuesday. Barden and Bury then lost 2-1 at Tilbury on the weekend, placing them fifth and six points behind league leaders Aveley.
There were just two defeats for City loanees last week, with Billy Johnson playing 90 minutes of Braintree Town’s 1-0 home defeat to Slough Town (the former are now just four points clear of the drop zone), and Nick Hayes begrudgingly featuring in Hertford Town’s 6-1 humbling at the hands of Chertsey Town in the Isthmian League South. Hertford sit 16th, seven points above the relegation zone.
Players who were unused substitutes: Alfie Payne (King’s Lynn Town)
Players who weren’t included in matchday squads: Mason Bloomfield (Crawley Town), Savvas Mourgos (FC Dordrecht)
Players whose teams didn’t have competitive fixtures: Carlton Morris, Louis Thompson (Milton Keynes Dons), Philip Heise (FC Nurnberg), Louis Lomas (Tampa Bay Rowdies)
Image credit: Joe Pepler/PinPep (Portsmouth FC), Swindon Town FC, Allan Picken (St. Mirren FC), SC Telstar FC, Mark Fletcher | MI News, @Smudgerlinnet (King’s Lynn Town FC)
