Joseph Anang kept a clean sheet on his League of Ireland debut as one of three West Ham United loanees who took to the field over the weekend.
The 21-year-old shot-stopper has joined St Patrick’s Athletic on loan until the end of the new Irish Premier Division season, and kicked off the campaign with a strong performance in a 3-0 away win over Dublin rivals, and newly-promoted side, Shelbourne.
On a freezing Friday night at Tolka Park, Anang was in red-hot form in front of a sell-out crowd, starting the match with a breath-taking save inside the opening minute.
A free-kick whipped into the area by Shelbourne’s Daniel Hawkins was met by Aaron O’Driscoll, drawing a point-blank stop from Anang, before the attacker was then flagged offside.
After seeing Darragh Burns give St Pat’s the lead 18 minutes in with a thunderbolt of an effort, Anang was then called upon several times early in the second half to make more routine stops.
And the home team pulled away with proceedings thanks to further goals from Mark Doyle and Jay McClelland’s close-range finishes, but Anang did have one final acrobatic save to make late on, springing high to his left to tip Jordan McEneff’s curling effort round the post.
The goalkeeper will now hope to keep up that fine form during Friday’s home match against Sligo Rovers, with St Pat’s hoping to go one step further this season than their second-place finish in 2020/21.
Also picking up an impressive and important victory over the weekend was Conor Coventry with MK Dons in League One.
Off the back of two frustrating draws, Liam Manning’s side travelled to fellow promotion chasers Sunderland and picked up a 2-1 win in the North East, with Coventry playing the full 90 of a resolute team display.
All three goals arrived in the second half, Mohamed Eisa and Connor Wickham striking for the Dons either side of Ross Stewart’s equaliser for Sunderland.
With four wins from his seven league appearances for MK Dons, Republic of Ireland U21s skipper Coventry continues to impress for his adopted side, and will relish a trip to face Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Tuesday.
At the other end of the table, Doncaster Rovers continued to struggle with a 3-1 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday, of which Mipo Odubeko played 81 minutes.
Manager Gary McSheffrey reinstated the young Hammers forward to his starting XI for the game and almost saw the 19-year-old grab his first professional goal, but two Reo Griffiths centres narrowly evaded the striker at the far post on both occasions.
Odubeko’s tireless running contributed to an industrious counter-attacking performance by Doncaster.
But once Sheffield Wednesday equalised on 70 minutes, the home team lost their way at Keepmoat Stadium, and the visitors added two further goals after Odubeko’s withdrawal.
Nathan Holland remained on the bench for Oxford United as Karl Robinson’s side ran rampant at The Valley, beating Charlton Athletic 4-0 to move up to fourth in League One.
And goalkeeper Nathan Trott was an unused substitute in AS Nancy’s 2-0 win over Dunkerque, a result which keeps his side in touch with the edge of the drop zone; they are now seven points from safety with 13 games to go.