Loan Report

Another '90' minutes for Dakarai Mafico tonight. He probably wishes it was only 90 minutes because in the 91st, with Yeovil drawing 2-2 at Boreham Wood, he fouled Cameron Coxe outside the box and the resulting free kick was rifled into the top corner from 25 yards out. Troy Perrett came on after 65 minutes with Yeovil losing 2-1 and down to 10 men. He got the assist for the equaliser and tested the keeper after that but it wasn't Yeovil's night.

Half an hour for Tanatswa Nyakuhwa in a 2-0 defeat for Newport at Swindon tonight. Will Spiers was back starting for Merthyr in yesterday's 0-0 draw at Kidderminster but no pitch time for Michael Reindorf for Tamworth in a 2-2 draw at Morecambe.

Three former City lads featured for Eastleigh last night but no pitch time for the current one, Luey Giles. While their neighbours, Southampton, went to the Midlands and came back from 3-0 down to win 4-3, Eastleigh were 2-0 down at half time at Solihull but came back to win 3-2. James Waite with the winner.

We should only loan players out to Yeovil!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Undercoverinwurzelland

We should only loan players out to Yeovil!

---

We were saying this about Cheltenham when Joel Colwill was doing well there but we've never seemed to build a regular link with another club, even Kortrijk.

We've probably loaned more to Newport than anyone else over the past ten years or so but I cant think of anyone who's had a great spell there off the top of my head. From David Tutonda, Tommy O'Sullivan (who's now playing for Samui United in the third division in Thailand, as you do) and Jazzy Barnum-Bobb through to Kieron Evans and Michael Reindorf it's never led to much. I'd even say Mark Harris made it here despite his time at Newport rather than because of it. Hopefully Nyakuhwa will prove an exception but he's off to a slow start there for now.

Goalkeeper Jake Dennis has joined Merthyr on a short-term loan until 30th March 2026.

Watched a bit of the yeovil match, Mafico played lwb. Didn't get much of the ball as from what I saw even before 10 men Boreham wood were the better team.

Seemed a bit wasted there. The one time he did actually get more central was some tidy touches in the build up to the equaliser at 2-2 and then they seemed to revert back to the back 5. Naive in the foul on the edge of the box that led to the winner.

It's a lot slower but there was next to no hoof ball.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trigger

Watched a bit of the yeovil match, Mafico played lwb. Didn't get much of the ball as from what I saw even before 10 men Boreham wood were the better team.

Seemed a bit wasted there. The one time he did actually get more central was some tidy touches in the build up to the equaliser at 2-2 and then they seemed to revert back to the back 5. Naive in the foul on the edge of the box that led to the winner.

It's a lot slower but there was next to no hoof ball.

---

From what I read, there seemed to be a frustration how flat and passive they'd been for the first hour and that they only came to life after going down to 10 men.

Mafico has obviously done well there and been playing 90 minutes each game but the clips I saw from Saturday showed him being beaten by the winger a couple of times. Rotherham isolated him in the game here and that will surely be a tactic other teams will wise up to. How he, and Yeovil, deal with that will probably be the key to whether he stays in that position.

I didn't see the costly foul at Boreham Wood but he didn't seem to be getting any stick off the reporter or fan base about it, he must be well in credit there. A lesson learnt for him although, to be fair, you wouldn't expect a free kick from there to be flying into the top corner at that level. They've got the league leaders, Rochdale, at home tomorrow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Trigger

Watched a bit of the yeovil match, Mafico played lwb. Didn't get much of the ball as from what I saw even before 10 men Boreham wood were the better team.

Seemed a bit wasted there. The one time he did actually get more central was some tidy touches in the build up to the equaliser at 2-2 and then they seemed to revert back to the back 5. Naive in the foul on the edge of the box that led to the winner.

It's a lot slower but there was next to no hoof ball.

---

Mafico played 90 minutes in central midfield today, maybe the manager agreed with you that he's wasted at left wing-back. He linked up with Troy Perrett in the first half, but Perrett's shot was saved, and he ran nearly the whole length of the pitch before getting tackled in the second but it was a largely tactical battle that ended 1-1. Yeovil had a player sent off with around 20 minutes to go for the second time this week.

Bizarrely, Mafico and Perrett were the only loaned outfielders to get any pitch time this weekend other than Will Spiers, who started in Merthyr's 7-1 win over Bedford. Jake Dennis played in goal for Merthyr, Luke Armstrong kept a clean sheet for Penybont and Ewan Griffiths made some good saves in a 1-1 draw for Cardiff Met.

Yeovil have got some decent write-ups of their games and good articles too. No paywall either so it's an unusually easy club to keep up with. Which is fortunate for now as Dakarai Mafico, along with Troy Perrett, are having to do a lot of heavy lifting in this thread.

Here's this week's 'Five Conclusions' piece after yesterday's draw with Rochdale. The fourth one is a very positive take on Mafico.

https://gloverscast.co.uk/five-concl...-1-rochdale-1/

Mafico made another mark. What a find Dakarai Mafico is. (Hat tip to Declan Skura too) The Cardiff youngster was in centre midfield yesterday – or number 6 as the cool kids say – and he was fantastic. Brave on the ball, forward-thinking, confident to play through the lines. He did his defensive work and got us attacking too. We may only get to enjoy him this season, (although with Cardiff chasing promotion to the Championship they might let us have him back next season, right?) but the way he knits everything together between defence and attack is well beyond his years.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NinianKnight

Mafico made another mark. What a find Dakarai Mafico is. (Hat tip to Declan Skura too) The Cardiff youngster was in centre midfield yesterday – or number 6 as the cool kids say – and he was fantastic. Brave on the ball, forward-thinking, confident to play through the lines. He did his defensive work and got us attacking too. We may only get to enjoy him this season, (although with Cardiff chasing promotion to the Championship they might let us have him back next season, right?) but the way he knits everything together between defence and attack is well beyond his years.

---

If he's out on loan again next year you'd presume we'd want to see him at league 2 or 1

Yes centre defensive mid seems his best position.

I thought that's where he had been playing for Yeovil until I saw that Boreham wood match, don't know if he was just covering for that game.

At that level though he certainly seems to offer far more centrally where he glides past players.

Be interesting to see where he goes next season, would be a surprise if it's the national league.

Bit of a relegation 6 pointer tonight, home to Aldershot. Obviously we will be watching city but it's impressive that it seems most if not all these NL games are on Dazn and streamable I'm sure.

The televised options have come a long way over the last 20 years.

Having won the fans man-of-the-match award on Saturday (his fourth since joining in January), Dakarai Mafico returned to the left wing-back position last night but was taken off at half time as Yeovil lost 2-1 at home to Aldershot. After a tactical battle on Saturday it seems like Yeovil were caught out by Aldershot's up-and-at-em approach and never came close to matching it. Maybe Mafico's recent unbroken run of 90 minute games caught up with him. At one point he calmly passed the ball back to the keeper - who wasn't there. A defender had to race back to stop the own goal. Troy Perrett also started for Yeovil.

When Luey Giles played for us at Villa in the cup last year, in front of a crowd of 40,000, he must have wondered if he'd ever be involved in an occasion like that again. He needn't have worried as last night he was called up for Eastleigh's Hampshire Senior Cup quarter-final against Hartley Wintney at the Winklebury Football Complex. It must've been a big deal because the clubhouse there was opened at 6.00, two hours before the 8.00 kick off. Luey played the 90 minutes as Eastleigh won 1-0.

90 minutes for Michael Reindorf too as Tamworth lost their League Cup semi-final 2-1. Very little coverage of what's happening at Tamworth but a match report suggests that Reindorf was involved throughout, hopefully he'll see more league action as a result.

What’s happened to Nyakuhwa at Newport? He hasn’t even been on the bench for their last couple of games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

What’s happened to Nyakuhwa at Newport? He hasn’t even been on the bench for their last couple of games.

---

No idea but I remember their fans saying they don’t play with wingers so odd unless they have changed formation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

What’s happened to Nyakuhwa at Newport? He hasn’t even been on the bench for their last couple of games.

---

Have any of our young players had a successful loan spell at Newport?
There on their arse, likely to be out of the league within the next few months, I did wonder what benefit is he going to get out of this type of loan???

He hasn't started a game yet. Just 5 sub appearances.

I notice Newport signed a player on loan a couple of weeks ago called Sven Sprangler. What a great name.

:hehe:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

He hasn't started a game yet. Just 5 sub appearances.

I notice Newport signed a player on loan a couple of weeks ago called Sven Sprangler. What a great name.

:hehe:

---

He must be in his 70s now, i recall him starring in 'The young and Foolish' and 'Debbie Does Dallas' Fair play to Debbie.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Lone Gunman

What’s happened to Nyakuhwa at Newport? He hasn’t even been on the bench for their last couple of games.

---

I don't know. He got half an hour at Swindon last week but missed the next two, as you say. Reindorf wasn't on the bench at the weekend either.

The problem there is that without any information its difficult to draw a conclusion. If they're on the bench and don't get on then that tells you something but if they're not there at all then you don't know if they're dropped or injured. It kept happening with Eli King last season. With more football content going behind a paywall (as with the Argus at Newport) it's not easy to keep track.

In Nyakuhwa's case it wouldn't surprise me if he's been dropped. He's not been great this season, didn't take his chances here and was struggling for form and confidence even at u-21 level when I saw him.

He got an assist in his first game at Newport. If they'd held on that day then maybe he'd have been up and running but he gave away a penalty, they lost and he was back to square one. Still time for him to turn it around there but it's been a poor start.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Loramski

I don't know. He got half an hour at Swindon last week but missed the next two, as you say. Reindorf wasn't on the bench at the weekend either.

The problem there is that without any information its difficult to draw a conclusion. If they're on the bench and don't get on then that tells you something but if they're not there at all then you don't know if they're dropped or injured. It kept happening with Eli King last season. With more football content going behind a paywall (as with the Argus at Newport) it's not easy to keep track.

In Nyakuhwa's case it wouldn't surprise me if he's been dropped. He's not been great this season, didn't take his chances here and was struggling for form and confidence even at u-21 level when I saw him.

He got an assist in his first game at Newport. If they'd held on that day then maybe he'd have been up and running but he gave away a penalty, they lost and he was back to square one. Still time for him to turn it around there but it's been a poor start.

---

I haven’t seen enough of him to form an opinion of wether he’s got what it takes to succeed, but being in a squad that continually lose and not getting 90 minutes on a regular basis, is hardly going to boost his confidence, I would have thought.

I’m not sure how long he’s got left on his contract, but if the club think there’s a player there somewhere, then he needs to go and play in the Non league set up at least for the first half of next season

Or maybe the club were just trying to help him move on and that’s why he’s gone there???

It’s not looking like a good move for either party atm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by olderblue

I haven’t seen enough of him to form an opinion of wether he’s got what it takes to succeed, but being in a squad that continually lose and not getting 90 minutes on a regular basis, is hardly going to boost his confidence, I would have thought.

I’m not sure how long he’s got left on his contract, but if the club think there’s a player there somewhere, then he needs to go and play in the Non league set up at least for the first half of next season

Or maybe the club were just trying to help him move on and that’s why he’s gone there???

It’s not looking like a good move for either party atm

---

No, but neither was Tanner's move to York, nor Mark Harris's three moves. Both of them struggled in the National League, who's to say Nyakuhwa wouldn't have too? Who's to say he won't learn the same lessons those two did if this loan doesn't work out?

It feels like we could've handled him better. We spent a season trying to convert him into a central striker when he was around 18, he should've gone out on loan at some point last season and probably should have in September this season too when, apparently, four teams were trying to pick him up. He's been treading water here for around 18 months.

Saying that, he's still younger than Tanner was when he went to York. Hopefully he can see what he needs to work on and turn the negative into a positive in the same way. If he can do that quickly there's even time for him to break the mould and be a Cardiff youngster having a successful loan at Newport. You're right about it being a graveyard for our lads there lately.

Is Mark Harris unique I wonder in being a Swansea born footballer who has never played for the jacks (and is unlikely ever to I’d say), but has played for Cardiff, Wrexham and Newport?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

Is Mark Harris unique I wonder in being a Swansea born footballer who has never played for the jacks (and is unlikely ever to I’d say), but has played for Cardiff, Wrexham and Newport?

---

I don't reckon there's many that have played for all three clubs full stop. David Giles may be the only players to have player for all 4 welsh league clubs though...probably...I think.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PhyllisStant

I don't reckon there's many that have played for all three clubs full stop. David Giles may be the only players to have player for all 4 welsh league clubs though...probably...I think.

---

if you include playing and managing then also Eddie May

Gary Bell

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rontomuk

Gary Bell

---

What about him?