First start for Simic this afternoon
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First start for Simic this afternoon
Looking up the Kortrijk game I saw that former u21 starlet, Marco Weymans plays in the Belgian Prem for Beerschot now. Their game was abandoned towards the end when their fans started lobbing fireworks at the pitch. They were 4-0 down at the time. What a place to send your star centre-forward.
Hopefully, yes, but your guess is as good as mine, it's hard enough keeping tabs on our own players (TOBW mentioned Tsunoda earlier, where's he at in his recovery? Surely the club could issue a 'back in full training' or 'suffered a setback' update at some point).
King took a while to get a start at Stevenage but when he had a good 90 minutes against Barnsley following on from 90 minutes for Wales u-21s a few days earlier it looked like his season was up and running. Now it seems like he's back to square one.
Revell made a lot of changes in midweek as he tried to find the right balance. He seems happy with the two clean sheets this week so Eli may have to wait a while longer but the games come thick and fast at that level so he'll soon have another chance. Big game for Wales u-21s on Friday week, him being fresh and fit for that will be handy.
A quick(ish) run through of how our loaned out players fared this week.
As two played each other yesterday, I'll start there. York's run of clean sheets was ended by a superb Raheem Conte cross being nodded in to give Woking the lead before York equalised with a penalty in the 81st minute. While Conte also had a penalty appeal turned down it wasn't Malachi Fagan-Walcott's best 90 minutes but the 1-1 draw means York are unbeaten in eight.
With Wales u-21's big game coming up on Friday, Joel Colwill and Eli King don't seem to be quite firing on all cylinders but they both started two games this week. It's quite common for loan spells to start well and then tail off a little as the packed schedule starts to take its toll and that seems to be happening a bit with Joel at the moment. A good midweek win for Cheltenham was followed by a defeat at Barrow yesterday and Joel was subbed late on. Eli King has been back in the Stevenage team that had the same home win - away loss run as Cheltenham and he was subbed both times, after an hour yesterday. There was criticism of him yesterday that most of his passes were sideways or backwards. No need to try and impress Bulut with that stuff now Eli, he's gone.
Sub appearances for Josh Beecher at Barry and Ryan Wintle at Millwall this weekend but no pitch time for Roko Simic at Kortrijk. He's only made three appearances so far and has played around two hours football so the claims by some on here that he was a Championship-ready striker seem a bit wide of the mark at this stage. No game for Luke Pearce's Sligo this week, they play a friendly against Celtic on Wednesday.
Cup fever has hit Plymouth Parkway as 253 turned up to watch their 3-2 win over Banbury in the FA Trophy yesterday. Next week sees them try and make the first round proper of the FA Cup with a home game against Worthing. All good experience for Ewan Griffiths, he's there at the right time. If anyone is planning on watching Plymouth Parkway, they play at Bolitho Park. If you want to make a day of it you can have your ear wax removed at the Honicknowle Pharmacy, it's only a 28 minute walk from the ground.
Last but not least this week, Kieron Evans has run into a bit of form for Newport. An assist in the 3-1 win over Salford in the week capped an excellent performance as he formed a good partnership with full back Cameron Evans up the right flank. Next up for Newport is a televised game on Sky at Bradford tomorrow night.
Fagan-Walcott apparently has a hamstring injury, out for "a week or two".
Routine looking cup game for York this weekend so he may have been rested anyway, hopefully he won't miss too much league stuff. Always a worry to lose your place though. When Mark Harris went to Newport he started well but had to miss a couple of games after a concussion. While he was out his replacement hit form, Harris struggled to get back in and the loan spell finished early. Can't see a similar issue for Fagan-Walcott though, he seems to be a key player for York.
Kieron Evans got an assist for Newport in their 3-1 loss at Bradford. He put over a superb cross for Kyle Hudlin to nod in the equaliser early in the second half. It led to a slightly awkward celebration as Hudlin is 6' 9" tall and Evans isn't. The cameraman did well to get both their heads in the same shot. Hudlin didn't seem quite sure what to do at first but ended up coming back to pat Kieron on the head which was probably the best option.
As I mentioned in the Academy thread, Ewan Griffiths will miss Plymouth Parkway's FA Cup tie with Worthing on Saturday as he's been called up by Wales u-19s for friendlies in Italy. An honour for Ewan, of course, but I'm sure he'll be sorry it's clashing with his club's big day. At any level of sport they're a bit special. It was always going to be historic for Plymouth Parkway, they've never got this far before in the FA Cup, but now I assume it'll be historic for another reason too as I can't believe they've ever lost a player due to an international call-up before.
Sligo Rovers lost their friendly to Celtic 3-2 last night. Luke Pearce came fourth in the player of the match poll, as chosen by Sligo fans, with 17.8% of the vote. That's something to put on his CV.
You guys are confused, he writes them and I stick them on here. I'd have thought you'd recognise his writing style from the Soul Crew books.
Not much to report this weekend with a number of players on international duty. Another ninety minutes for Kieron Evans as Newport went down to a 1-0 defeat at Harrogate due to a goalkeeping blunder (I think it's de rigueur to use 'howler' but I plough my own furrow on here). Kieron set up a couple of chances for teammates but it wasn't their day.
Raheem Conte played 51 minutes as Woking edged past Slough in the FA Cup. Malachi Fagan-Walcott missed York's win with injury and Ewan Griffiths missed Plymouth Parkway's 4-0 defeat to Worthing as he was with Wales under-19s. Ewan was the only squad member not to get any pitch time in the game with Italy on Thursday. Maybe he wasn't registered, it happens.
A first start for Josh Beecher today as Barry beat Briton Ferry 3-1. An early assist too, a burst up the left wing led to a goal for Keenan Patten. I've heard it said that Beecher could end up as a full back or a winger and if that's true he's got some thinking to do here with Luey Giles ahead of him at club and international level. Any hopes he had of making progress in a more advanced role may have been dashed when we signed El Ghazi and Willock in the summer with O'Dowda already here but now he's seen them all play he should feel more confident.
Luke Pearce's Sligo are at Derry on Monday night, no games for Millwall or Kortrijk this weekend.
Excusationem accepit.
Luke Pearce was sent off for Sligo tonight near the end of the 1-1 draw with Derry after his second yellow card.
I doubt Ewan Griffiths will be joining up with Plymouth Parkway in time for tomorrow night's game with AFC Totton but he'll be facing Charlie Austin if he does. Austin joined Totton in the summer having been released by Swindon.
Just seen it and, I agree, doing a football podcast in Latin is a great idea. Big gap in the market there. I'd be happy to do it with you, yes. Frank Lampard got an A* in his Latin GCSE, he can be our first guest. I assume he's still fluent.
Another 90 minutes for Josh Beecher last night as Barry came back from 2-0 down at half time to win 4-2 at Newtown. Keenan Patten popped up with the fourth goal there. Maybe TOBW can correct me but I don't remember Keenan scoring much when he was here but he seems to be getting forward to good effect this season.
Weird weekend for our loaned out players, not much to report really. Eli King played 84 minutes in Stevenage's win at Mansfield, Josh Beecher got another 90 in as Barry went out of the Welsh Cup on penalties to Caerau Ely having had a player sent off in the first half and Kieron Evans was subbed in Newport's heavy home defeat to Chesterfield (for whom Vontae Daley-Campbell came on in the second half).
They were the only starters. Joel Colwill and Ryan Wintle came on as second half subs, Luke Pearce was suspended, Raheem Conte presumably injured and Ewan Griffiths has lost his place for now to the keeper signed on a one month deal to replace him when he was called away on Wales Under-19 duty.
Malachi Fagan-Walcott hasn't quite recovered from a hamstring niggle but should be buoyed by the news that Gary Oldman will be coming to York's Theatre Royal in April to perform in Samuel Beckett's excellent Krapp's Last Tape. It's pretty bleak (it makes King Lear look like Mrs Brown's Boys) so I wouldn't recommend it for a lads night out but Malachi shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth when tickets go on sale on November 16th.
Roko Simic's Kortrijk play on Sunday. No rush to get yourself over here now Roko, we're good for goals thank you.