Kights leads the loanees
I don’t think it went unnoticed last Tuesday that Michael Kightly, having joined Burton Albion on loan, and ready to play his part in the relegation battle at the bottom of the Championship, could just have a say in our local rivals Blackburn Rovers making their way to League One.
With Blackburn beating QPR it was therefore good news that such as Bristol City, Wolves and Burton all got wins, more so after Wigan’s inept performance against Sheffield Wednesday on the previous evening. It was even better news that Kights more than played his part in the Burton win against his old club Wolves, scoring their equaliser in a 2-1 win and picking up the man of the match award.
He’d already tested Wolves’ goalkeeper Carl Ikeme with a couple of really good efforts, one of them from a free kick, but when he did score, with what was his first goal since he broke our goal drought at Leicester in September 2014, it was from close range after the ball was played across to him by his former Burnley team mate Marvin Sordell.
He suffered some abuse from the Wolves fans but didn’t celebrate the goal and said afterwards that it was something he just couldn’t do against the team he loves. “I’d never celebrate against Wolves,” he said. “I’d celebrate against another team I’ve played against to be honest, other than Wolves. They gave me my chance in football, and I owe everything to Wolves for that, and that will stay with me until I die.”
His new boss Nigel Clough said of him: “Michael gave us that focal point, somebody to give the ball to. Everyone’s looking at who really wants the ball when you are 1-0 down at home and he did in the second half and wanted to create something.”
He was part of a Burnley flavour among the Championship goalscorers too. Ross Wallace scored Wednesday’s winner in that dreadful game at Wigan and it was Lukas Jutkiewicz who netted Birmingham’s winner against Fulham to give Gianfranco Zola his first win since taking over.
Moving down a division, Oldham are stirring since John Sheridan returned as manager. They’ve won three of their last five games. They remain in the bottom four but are starting to give themselves a chance of staying up.
Like Burnley they had to battle with ten men after Anthony Gerrard was sent off right on half time with a team that included Aiden O’Neill, making his debut having joined them on loan. O’Neill played the full game at Chesterfield and played a major part in their stoppage time winner, getting the ball into the box from a deep position for Peter Clarke to head home the winner.
It led to chaos behind the goals with one over active steward trying to stem the tide of Oldham fans running on to celebrate, but for O’Neill it had been a good debut.
In Wales, Brad Jackson got his Bangor debut as a substitute but it was not a good day for the Welsh Premier League club who lost 3-2 against Bala on a day when the referee took centre stage. He issued two red cards, but had to retract one when he realised the second yellow was only a first, he gave two penalties and disallowed goals for both sides.
Jackson played a superb through ball for Bangor’s third goal in stoppage time but they couldn’t quite force an equaliser.
I think it is fair to say that Ntumba Massanka had a good day with Wrexham. He got his first league start and scored his first goal with a sensational overhead kick. They were a goal down but went on to beat Guiseley 3-1. Ntumba got the first and the local paper said of his performance: “A stunning effort to bring Wrexham back on level terms, but put in a stunning display throughout.”
You can check it out below.
Chris Long also got his first game in three weeks but this time for a different club. His previous game had come for Fleetwood at Coventry but on Saturday he made his debut for Bolton in a 1-1 draw at MK, playing the first 69 minutes before being replaced by Viv Solomon-Otabor.
Fredrik Ulvestad has found himself out of the Charlton side in 2017 with new manager Karl Robinson having opted to play only one holding midfielder. He said of Ulvestad: “Freddie is a wonderful person to have around the building but he might just have to wait for his opportunity to arise.”
Alex Whitmore was back in the Morecambe team having returned there on loan for the remainder of the season. He played in their 1-1 draw at Doncaster and Luke Hendrie continues to do well at Kilmarnock. They drew 1-1 at Hamilton with Hendrie making his 20th Scottish Premiership appearance.
George Green got his first start for Salford in a big game against league leaders AFC Fylde, and what a time to get into the side. They beat Fylde 5-0 with Green playing the first 73 minutes and getting an assist.
Over in Germany, Fortuna Düsseldorf play at Stuttgart tonight in Bundesliga 2 with Rouwen Hennings hoping to end a long run without a goal. He got off to a good start when he returned to Germany and his brace against Arminia Bielefeld in mid-October took his total to five. Unfortunately he’s not netted since in a run that has now reached 787 minutes.
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