Anyone familiar with TV over the years will know that the expression Christmas Special is an oxymoron and the first televised Loan Watch Christmas Special was no different. Even with the added bonus of two games instead of one, Channel 5 were so disappointed that they've decided to run with a repeat of Dog Rescuers at Xmas with Alan Davies at 3.10 in the morning instead. A humbling blow but, to be fair, Loan Watch without Etien Velikonja is like the Queen's Speech without the Queen, there's no escaping it. Much as we love him, the Queen's Speech read by Deji Oshilaja wouldn't quite be the same and, similarly, it would be unfair to expect him to fill Etien's shoes either.
Let's start with Deji this week. An excellent 3-1 win at Swindon followed by a 1-0 win against Colchester sees Gillingham one point off the top of the League 1 table in 3rd place. Deji was caught roughly fifty yards out of position as Swindon broke away to score their goal, presumably he'd gone forward for a set-piece. He wasn't involved in the Gillingham goals but joined in the celebrations with gusto, he seems to be enjoying his time there. He was rested for today's game. His initial loan spell is nearly over, it'll be interesting to see what happens next with him.
He was the only player to get 90 minutes in on Saturday. Eoin Doyle's 17 minutes against Huddersfield remains the only Championship action for our players so far this Xmas, bench warming has been the case the rest of the time. Tommy O'Sullivan and Jazzi Barnum-Bobb were both subbed on Saturday as Newport lost at Barnet but they played the 90 minutes today in another defeat, 2-1 at home to table-topping Plymouth. Their initial loan spells are nearly over too but I'd expect them both to remain there for the time being.
Semi Ajayi's game with Crewe was postponed on Saturday but he played today in a 2-1 home loss to Shrewsbury. Unfortunately though, I'm not able to give you many details as there was a slight contretemps with the Loan Watch Midlands correspondent. He'd been assigned to the game but was demanding double pay. I said "you're demanding double time because it's a Bank Holiday?", he replied "no, I'm demanding double time because you're making me watch Crewe v Shrewsbury" which was a fair point, well made. I gave him the day off and said I'd google the match report instead but Ajayi only gets mentioned for a great tackle in the first half and a 6 out of 10 rating which commended his pace but said he wobbled at times.
With Ben Turner, Alex Revell and Ben Wilson all back at the club that's about it, let's wrap it up and pretend it never happened. Of our former players, Jon Parkin and Danny Johnson both scored in the National League while Josh Yorwerth played the last game of his loan spell at Crawley. Although it was a 2-0 defeat, Josh managed to avoid the ignominy of conceding a penalty for the third game running.
Roll on 2016.