Well remembered, he was a sub at Gillingham.
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A disappointing week for our loaned out players. The only winner was Roko Simic and he only got a minute for Karlsruher. Jesper Daland was suspended for Fortuna Dusseldorf's win on Friday.
No luck for our National League players as Eastleigh and Yeovil suffered three defeats between them this week. Luey Giles started for Eastleigh on Tuesday as they bowed out of the FA Trophy but didn't feature yesterday in a heavy home defeat by Aldershot. Will Spiers was cup-tied in the week but played the full 90 yesterday, on the wing as far as I can make out.
Dakarai Mafico played the 90 for Yeovil yesterday and Troy Perrett came on as sub but it was a poor team performance as they lost 2-1 at Brackley. The pair of them set up a late chance for Luke McCormick but it was saved.
No action in the Welsh Leagues this weekend. Morgan Wigley has returned here from Barry but Isaac Jefferies (TNS) and Luke Armstrong (Penybont) are still on loan although Armstrong has morphed into our 18-year-old keeper Dan Higgs for the past couple of months. I'm not sure what's happened to Armstrong but Higgs seems to be doing well there, he picked up the player of the month award for November.
Saving the best/worst till last, Tanatswa Nyakuhwa came on as sub for Newport at Gillingham and provided the assist for Cameron Antwi to put them 2-1 up in the 84th minute, which was still the score going into fifteen minutes of injury time. However, Nyakuhwa then gave away a penalty after a clumsy touch and a clumsier attempt to retrieve the ball left a home player on the floor and the lead had gone. They then conceded another to go 3-2 down and that's how it stayed after James Crole had a late effort well saved by 42-year-old keeper Glenn Morris to deny him a debut goal.
Looking at it again, maybe naive would be a better word than clumsy. The Gillingham guy doesn't make much of an attempt to play the ball, he just steps into Nyakuhwa's way and throws himself to the ground when the contact comes.
I felt sorry for him too but this board would've melted if he'd done that for us. It's probably best he's learnt his lesson somewhere else.
90 minutes for Will Spiers yesterday as Eastleigh lost their fourth game in a row but a quiet week otherwise for our loaned out players. Yeovil had both games postponed, as did St Mirren yesterday. Roko Simic didn't get on for Karlsruher, Jesper Daland got 14 minutes for Dusseldorf. Luke Armstrong is back in goal for Penybont and kept a clean sheet, Isaac Jefferies has joined TNS permanently.
After a couple of injury time mishaps this season, it was good to see Tanatswa Nyakuhwa survive unscathed yesterday after being brought on in the 91st minute. I'm guessing he blasted everything into row Z after what happened last week and Newport held on to their 2-1 lead.
I wonder why he was sent to Newport to sit on the subs bench for 90 minutes, surely the whole idea is for him to get game time and experience?
If he isn’t good enough for a team in the relegation zone of league two, there’s not much chance of him making any progress here, I would have thought?
Early days yet though. Newport have just signed James Crole on a two and a half year contract and he's been on the bench too. Nyakuhwa hasn't had a lot of game time lately, I haven't been surprised to see him being eased into things there.
Loans are complicated and unpredictable. Joel Colwill struggled to make any kind of impact at Exeter last season, what conclusion do we draw from that? I don't see Nyakuhwa as a player who's going to be consistently getting 90 minutes of game time at this stage of his career, much like Alves for us last season. Hopefully he'll grow into it there and become a key player for them but we'll see. He should learn and benefit from the experience whatever happens, as Colwill seems to have done.
But then the club would be criticised for not sending him to a league side so he'd be more ready for Championship (or League 1) football next season. It's never easy to judge without knowing more about the player, his character, the club he's going to etc but I think we've got this about right.
He's already aware he's going to have to fight for a starting place and when he does play there'll be something on every game both for himself and the team. If playing 90 minutes every week with no pressure was going to benefit him then we might as well have kept him here playing u-21s, in my opinion.
It finally stopped raining for long enough to let Yeovil Town get a game in this weekend and they took full advantage by winning their FA Trophy last 16 tie at Telford 2-0. 90 minutes and good performances from Troy Perrett and Dakarai Mafico. Both players were praised by manager Billy Rowley after the game; Perrett for taking up intelligent positions, Mafico for taking on board new things being asked of him both on and off the ball.
A good win for Yeovil, who had five players out either cup-tied or injured, as they got through a tricky looking tie in front of a healthy away support of 444. I don't know anything about the rest of their squad but one report I saw said a Yeovil defender had a 'reputation for shithousery'. Perry Ng should sue for breach of copyright.
Not much else to report. Kion Etete was subbed at half time in St Mirren's 0-0 draw with Dundee, Roko Simic got 15 minutes for Karlsruher and that's about it. Luey Giles didn't get on in another defeat for Eastleigh. Will Spiers wasn't in the squad, presumably injured, and Tanatswa Nyakuhwa wasn't in Newport's squad either as they fell to a second heavy defeat of the week, at Bristol Rovers. Jesper Daland's Fortuna Dusseldorf play this lunchtime.
Etete came on as sub after 63 minutes of St Mirren's Scottish Cup game last night, then was subbed off again before extra time started. Injured again or just not playing well?
Weirdly, the guy who replaced him was also subbed off, so the line-up shows J. Devaney - K. Etete 63' - M. Dijksteel 90' - J. Calvin 102'. Must be quite rare.
Etete was subbed at half time in his final game for Rotherham and at half time on his debut for St Mirren. Fair play.
The article I wanted was behind a paywall but it seems that the manager wanted to go into extra time with two wide men and Etete was sacrificed. A 2-1 win suggests he made the right call.
A 1-0 away win for Yeovil today as Altrincham paid the price for missing a first half penalty. Dakarai Mafico continued his development as a central midfielder by getting another 90 minutes in as a left wing-back. A clean sheet but a few scary moments for him defensively, only to be expected I guess. He was taking corners today which I hadn't seen before.
Troy Perrett started for Yeovil too and was doing some good number 10 things in the clips I saw. Driving from midfield, drifting into the box to receive a through ball, nearly putting his striker in with a quick pass and getting involved in build-up play. He was taken off after 69 minutes but both him and Mafico played their part today.
Elsewhere, Tanatswa Nyakuhwa got 22 minutes in for Newport as they drew 0-0 with Grimsby in a game where each team had a penalty saved. No pitch time for Luey Giles as Eastleigh drew 2-2 but Ewan Griffiths played in goal for Cardiff Met as they drew 1-1 with Bala.
89 minutes for Michael Reindorf as Tamworth scored their first league goal in a month in a 1-1 home draw with Hartlepool, not much info on his contribution as yet. Hartlepool will be disappointed with the draw but should be grateful they didn't have their team bus stolen from there as Alvechurch did on Tuesday night. It would've been a long walk home.
If they're on the pitch at the same time tomorrow then Jesper Daland and Roko Simic will come up against each other in a game some people are already calling 'the 2. Bundesliga match between Karlsruher and Fortuna Dusseldorf'. And it's hard to argue with that.
A brief, but very positive, Yeovil perspective on Mafico and Perrett here. It's the third of the five 'conclusions' in the article.
https://gloverscast.co.uk/five-concl...ovil-town-1-2/
Early days but it is encouraging, yes.
Fair play to Mafico. As far as I know he hasn't played in any 5 at the back set-up in his time here and is a centre-mid (BBM quickly abandoned any idea of using him as a full back after the Rotherham game).
So to go to a new club, play left wing-back and pick up their player of the month award straight off is impressive. I wonder what BBM will see him as when he comes back if this continues?
Etete didn’t even get off the bench this evening as St Mirren lost 4-3 at Kilmarnock. Another great loan spell developing for him.