You'll be glad to see that there are still no shabby corporate sponsorship tie-ins with this week's Loan Watch. Better the loan wolf than the cringing dogs, as George Orwell once said. Amen to that. Loan Watch prides itself on producing hard-hitting, cutting-edge articles from an independent standpoint and will continue to do so until someone comes in with a big enough offer.
Who else can we start with this week but Alex Revell? (pictured) After helping Wigan to a 2-0 win last week he popped up with the winner yesterday, a well directed header for a 1-0 win over Shrewsbury. Manager Gary Caldwell was delighted with him - "With Alex it is not just his goals, with him it is his work rate, the way he holds the ball up and brings other people into the game. He's got experience, he leads the line well so I am delighted he got the goal but his all-round performance was outstanding". High praise indeed. At this rate it won't be long before Wigan fans start comparing him to Etien Velikonja.
No goal for him this week but a 0-0 draw at Lommel means Lierse have gone 6 games unbeaten as they seem to be turning their season around after a bad start. The Norwegian season has finished so Filip Kiss has a couple of months off before Haugesund play again. Filip was on the reserve list for Slovakia's recent friendlies so is not completely out of the picture as next year's Euros approach. Rhys Healey has returned to City due to the recent ankle injury he sustained while playing for Dundee. The club want to monitor him and decide whether he'll require surgery.
No winners in the Championship this week. Tom Adeyemi came on in the second half, as Leeds lost at home to Rotherham, as did Adam le Fondre, who set up the equaliser for Wolves as they drew 2-2 at Ipswich. Joe Lewis played for Fulham as they drew 1-1 at MK Dons while Eoin Doyle started for Preston as they lost 2-1 at home to Paul Lambert's Blackburn Rovers.
York continue to lose in League 2 but new manager Jackie McNamara continues to keep the faith and play the youngsters. He's brought in the Huddersfield under-21 captain, William Boyle, on loan this week and hopefully David Tutonda is being encouraged by the emphasis on youth. York fans seem to be, they continue to travel in numbers and get behind the team even though the results are disappointing. Tutonda came on early in the second half yesterday as York nearly overturned a two goal deficit with a strong finish but lost 3-2.
Ben Wilson was largely untroubled in a 1-1 draw with Wycombe in the week that his loan spell at AFC Wimbledon was extended until January. Jazzi Barnum-Bobb was moved to left-back in Newport's cup win over Brackley in the week but was back on the right in a 0-0 draw with Yeovil yesterday. Another excellent performance from him but Tommy O'Sullivan was unable to get his place back after being away on international duty and only came on in the 82nd minute.
OK, so you've just taken your top off and now you're being chased by a very excited Filip Kiss. Come on, we've all been there but when it happened to Ben Turner at Wembley in 2012 it produced one of the more iconic images in the club's recent history. Even though we lost that final you'd need a hard heart to see that picture and not go a bit gooey. It seems that Coventry fans still have special memories of him too as he was welcomed back there with open arms yesterday. He rewarded them with a goal in a 4-1 win over Deji Oshilaja's Gillingham to go top of League 1. Apparently, City have a say over how much Ben can play at Coventry as he works his way back to full fitness, he came off after 55 minutes yesterday. League 1 is shaping up nicely from Loan Watch's point of view, Coventry are top, Gillingham second and Wigan fourth.
Of our former players, Matt Green scored two for Mansfield yesterday in a 3-1 win over Hartlepool while Phil Brignull, who played centre-half for us in the mid 80s, saw his Cardiff and Met hockey team beat Chichester Priory Park 4-2 to go seven points clear in the NOW: Pensions Men's Hockey League Conference West. Actually, although he's the manager that's only an administrative role in hockey but maybe he has been passing on some of the tactical nous and man management skills that he learnt off Alan Durban while he was here. The fact that they're top by seven points is probably proof that he hasn't.