To be honest, it's a relief to get rid of the big-time Charlies for a week and be able to concentrate on some proper football for a change. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson; when a man is tired of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy area quarter-finals, he is tired of life.
Let's start there this week as two of our young players were involved. Deji Oshilaja played the first half against Yeovil on Tuesday as he made his comeback after recovering from a knee injury he suffered in August. Maybe Gillingham took Yeovil too lightly as they experimented with a 3-5-2 system in that 45 minutes and found themselves 1-0 down. Although they got it back to 1-1 at full time they then went out on penalties, a chance wasted. They are back on top of League 1 though after beating Bury yesterday, Deji came on as a late sub.
It was a case of the resistible force meeting the movable object in the Northern section as Barnsley met York, two out of form sides. Winger Adam Hammill was making his comeback for Barnsley after being away for four years, during which time he played some Premiership football for Wolves. Of no great interest to David Tutonda, or so he probably thought. David came on early in the second half with York 1-0 up, a perfect opportunity to kick-start both York's and Tutonda's season. A Barnsley equaliser out of nowhere was followed by the nightmare scenario for David with seven minutes to go. He suddenly found himself completely isolated out wide with Hammill running at him. With David not sure whether to show him down the line or inside and with no idea what was going on behind him it was a thankless task. Hammill's quick feet kept David guessing before he finally cut into the box after feigning to go to the byline. David quickly adjusted but not quickly enough. Just as he went to make the tackle, Hammill unleahed a shot into the top corner for a 2-1 Barnsley win. A brilliant goal.
York manager Jackie McNamara was quick to criticise the other York players for that goal, saying there should have been more cover, and he showed his faith in Tutonda by bringing him on early again yesterday with York 2-0 down at home to table-toppers Plymouth. He also gave him praise for taking the game to Plymouth and getting the crowd going. A late assist was in vain though as York lost 2-1.
A warm welcome to Loan Watch for Alex Revell (pictured) after his move to Wigan. He's joined a strong side who are now favourites for the League 1 title. He played the first hour yesterday in a wide role in a 4-2-3-1 formation (for anyone not familiar with that position, it's the Hazard/Du Bruyne role. Should be easy enough to imagine Revell playing there if you didn't see it) before moving up front for Craig Davies late on. Revell seemed to fit in well with his new teammates, he put in a shift but didn't score.
Tommy O'Sullivan is away with Wales under-21s but Jazzi Barnum-Bobb played for Newport, and came up with an assist, as they drew 2-2 with Accrington yesterday and Ben Wilson was solid for AFC Wimbledon in a 0-0 draw at Portsmouth. No competitive action for our Championship players but Adam le Fondre got two goals for Wolves in a friendly with a strong Liverpool side.
Rhys Healey is out for 6 weeks with an ankle injury at Dundee which leaves him in limbo for now. He should be fit in time, just, to play again during this loan spell and if Dundee are looking to extend it then it would be well worth Rhys staying up there. However, there is talk in the Scottish press that there was a plan to let Rhys stay at Dundee only until January so that he could then come back to push for a first team place with us. I'm not sure about this though, it's hard to imagine Slade having a plan.
After carelessly forgetting to score for two games in a row, Etien Velikonja got back on track with two goals in a 4-2 home win for Lierse. That moves him into double figures for the season and he is now second top scorer in that league.
Of our former players, we had someone involved in three of the four Euro play-offs. Jo-Inge Berget, for Norway against Hungary, Kasper Schmeichel, for Denmark against Sweden, and David Forde, who was on the bench for Ireland against Bosnia. The only game without a City link saw Slovenia lose 2-0 to Ukraine. If only they had a goal scorer.