EFL Matchweek 5 Round-Up: Things You Might've Missed
Matchweek five across the Championship, League One and League Two gave us plenty.
Here's what happened.
"3! 2! 1..."
Will Brook has had a decent start to life at Shrewsbury Town since arriving from Nottingham Forest last summer, but 6 minutes before half time against Fleetwood he found out exactly why the backpass law has a time limit attached to it. The goalkeeper held onto the ball for more than 8 seconds before the referee finally penalised him, and up stepped Fleetwood for a corner they had no business getting. Rhys Bennett headed it down, and Ronan Coughlan, arriving at close range, guided it home with his knee.
It capped a miserable afternoon for the hosts. Shrewsbury had penalty shouts waved away in the second half and Lewis McCann dragged a low effort just wide, but Fleetwood killed the game off 4 minutes from time when on-loan Fulham striker Aaron Loupalo-Bi's close-range effort took a wicked deflection past a helpless Brook. Two-nil to the Cod Army, five games unbeaten in League Two, and one very expensive reminder for Shrewsbury's goalkeeper that the clock is always running.
2 Yellows in 3 Minutes
Charlton Athletic had not lost a single league game all season heading into their trip to the bet365 Stadium. Stoke City made sure that run ended in the most emphatic way possible, and Danny McNamara made sure his own afternoon ended even faster than the scoreline suggests.
Debutant Justin Devenny scored twice either side of goals from Ethan Galbraith and George Hirst to put Stoke 4-0 up by half time, already a chastening scoreline for a Charlton side that had arrived unbeaten. Then came the finishing touch. McNamara, sent on as a half-time substitute, was booked for pulling back Eric Bocat, then dismissed in the 50th minute for a second yellow after remonstrating with referee Robert Madley, both cards inside the space of 3 minutes. Stoke's afternoon could not have gone much better. Charlton's could not have gone much worse.
Handbags in the Technical Area
League Two leaders Bristol Rovers were already cruising to a fourth straight win, 1-0 up thanks to Tommy Leigh's goal, when the whole thing very nearly boiled over in the technical areas. With Rotherham chasing an equaliser and the ball rolling into the Rovers dugout, Millers head coach Alex Bruce went to retrieve it himself. What happened next depends who you ask. Rotherham say Bruce was kicked on the hand by Rovers assistant Paul Raynor as he bent down for the ball, and video shows Bruce shoving Raynor backwards in response. Whatever the exact sequence, both men were sent off in the 93rd minute, and the FA have since charged both clubs and both coaches over the incident.
Alexandre Pato Fancied Some League 2 Action
Sixfields does not usually attract former Brazil internationals to the away end, but Alexandre Pato was there on Saturday, part of the Sports Alpha Capital consortium that has just been cleared by the EFL and the Independent Football Regulator to take a majority stake in Northampton Town. Pato, who won Serie A with Milan and later had a brief spell at Chelsea, flew in specifically to watch his prospective new club take on Newport County.
Northampton gave him something to smile about. A tight, largely chanceless game looked destined for a goalless draw until Joe O'Brien-Whitmarsh found space on the edge of the box in the 87th minute and finished into the bottom corner. Cobblers boss Chris Hogg called it a solid rather than spectacular start to the season, which feels about right for a 1-0 League Two win, but with a Brazilian former World Cup striker watching from the stands and a takeover about to wipe out the club's debt, Northampton fans will take solid all day long.
Hand of God at Leicester?
Leicester City's fall from the Premier League to League One in the space of a couple of seasons has been brutal enough without afternoons like this. Oxford United arrived at the King Power and left with all three points and then some, and the manner of the opening goal will not have helped Russell Martin's mood one bit. Mark Harris got on the end of Mo Missanga's cross in the 7th minute, but his connection was poor enough that the ball appeared to catch his arm on its way over the line. The officials let it stand.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of that one, Oxford were not finished. Missanga claimed his first senior goal in the 57th minute, converting Kai Andrews' pass to double the lead, and Harris completed his own brace 3 minutes later from another Andrews assist. Substitute Jamie McDonnell added a fourth in the 77th minute, finishing off a Luka Lynch pass to complete the rout. Leicester's only win of the league season had come just four days earlier. This was the other side of that coin entirely.
That's matchday five done. Plenty more where that came from once the fixtures come back round, tell us what we missed in the meantime.
