Everton’s youngsters had a successful midweek at their respective loan clubs, with Chris Long netting a brace for Brentford and Conor McAleny scoring his first goal in senior football for Cardiff City.
Long’s Brentford side recorded a 4-1 win over Huddersfield Town at Griffin Park – and it was the on-loan striker who got the ball rolling inside five minutes.
The 20-year-old latched on to a through ball from midfield before firing past Alex Smithies at the near post to open the scoring.
Huddersfield’s Harry Bunn restored parity midway through the first period, but Long struck again shortly after the break, tapping home a rebound into the roof of the net after Jota saw his initial effort saved.
The Blues forward was replaced on 73 minutes, before fellow loanees Alex Pritchard and Jon Toral added two more later in the second half to secure victory and move the Bees up to sixth in the Championship.
Elsewhere in the division, McAleny played 90 minutes and notched his first goal for Cardiff City as the Bluebirds beat Rotherham United 3-1 at the New York Stadium.
The visitors raced into a 3-0 lead inside 35 minutes, which ensured Danny Ward’s second-half strike was a mere consolation for the hosts.
In League One, Matthew Pennington completed another 90 minutes for Coventry City, but the defender could not prevent the Sky Blues from slipping to a 1-0 defeat at Barnsley.
Looking back at last weekend, Conor Grant's Motherwell side picked up a huge result in their Scottish Premier League match at home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
With Inverness in third place and chasing a European spot, Well were up against it but went in front when Grant’s perfect cross found defender Louis Laing who headed home.
And despite Caley levelling, Motherwell earned three valuably points through Lionel Ainsworth’s deflected strike. They now sit on 21 points alongside St Mirren and Ross County.
Back in England, Pennington played two matches last week, picking up four points in the process.
On Tuesday, Pennington and Coventry City failed to hold on to a 2-0 lead against Sheffield United, despite the Blades going down to 10 men after former Blues striker Jose Baxter was given his marching orders.
The Everton loanee played the full 90 minutes as the game ended 2-2.
That result saw Sky Blues boss Steven Pressley lose his job meaning Neil MacFarlane and Dave Hockaday took charge ahead of Saturday’s game against promotion hopefuls MK Dons. Once again Pennington played the full 90 and helped the Sky Blues to an impressive 2-1 win which helped them climb out of the League One drop zone.
Meanwhile, in the Championship, strikers Long and McAleny both sat out a game apiece last week. McAleny was an unused substitute in Cardiff’s win at Wigan Athletic but did make a second half cameo when coming on in the 63rd minute in the 1-0 defeat at Wolves.
Long did the reverse – he played the final 28 minutes of Brentford’s 4-0 success over Blackpool in midweek, contributing to no less than 42 efforts on goal from the rampant Bees. However, he was then unused as they lost out 1-0 to Birmingham City on Saturday.
Finally, down in the Vanarama Conference, Ben McLaughlin played 90 minutes in AFC Telford’s 1-0 defeat to Grimsby on Tuesday then just 20 before going off in the 1-0 loss to Alfreton Town.
