Skip to site footer

EFL badge - Link to home

General

Dean Ashton and Ali Maxwell review the weekend action

19 October 2020

With the Sky Bet Championship returning to our screens, it was a typically dramatic weekend of football across the EFL. Quest pundits Dean Ashton and Ali Maxwell have their say on this weekend's Championship, League One and League Two action…

On Ivan Toney’s start to life at Brentford… 
 
Dean Ashton: “Brentford won’t stop, they’ll keep churning through players, bringing new talent. Look at Ivan Toney, you only had to watch him last season for Peterborough to know his quality. 

“All it took was his first goal and now he’s up and running, looks full of confidence and is finishing beautifully. ”

Is Carlos Corberan the man to take Huddersfield Town forwards?
 
Dean Ashton: “It’s clear that Carlos Corberan has brought a vibrancy to a squad that was lacking any sort of energy last season. It’s clear that he's set them up to play with more energy.  

"The only thing missing is a big star, which must be frustrating, but you can see this manager clearly has something about him and could take them places.” 

On Chris Hughton and Nottingham Forest… 

Dean Aston: “He’s got a fantastic record in this league, he knows what it takes to get out of it, which is what Nottingham Forest will be hoping for. They went into the game against a Blackburn Rovers team that have had 32 shots on target, and yet on Saturday against a Chris Hughton side, only two. 

“And that’s what Chris Hughton is going to do with this team. He’ll tighten them up and set them up so they’re hard to beat.” 

On Norwich City’s ‘massive’ win at the weekend…

Dean Ashton: “ I think Norwich City are still trying to heal the wounds of a bad Premier League season, losing a lot of games and conceding a lot of goals, so I think it is going to take a bit of time. 

“The manger looks to have been frustrated recently, but I think things will settle down now, that’s a massive win for them.” 

On Albert Adomah playing for his boyhood club…

Dean Ashton: “Some players say they support the club they play for, and I know I have in the past, but I was never a fan like Adomah is, he’s a massive massive QPR fan so Saturday was a great day for him.” 

 
On MK Dons’ first win of the season…
 
Ali Maxwell: “As long as performances are good, results will come. Saturday's win - fuelled by Norwich City, Russel Martin of course a former legend in the dugout, Cameron Jerome scoring on his debut for MK Dons and then Carlton Morris who’s on loan from the Canaries” 

“They’ve been really good in the last few weeks so I’m really glad to se them get a win.” 

Mallik Wilks steps up… 
 
Dean Ashton: “What will please Grant McCann so much is the response, he’ll have been talking to his players about that all week, and Mallik Wilks has really taken on the responsibility of leading the line.” 

On unbeaten Ipswich Town… 
 
Ali Maxwell: “Ipswich were eleven games unbeaten at the start of last year and collapsed spectacularly, but that doesn’t mean it’ll happen again. I think these wins look a lot more robust than the scraped wins last season. They had no strikers available today and the wingers were still scoring!”
 
Darren Moore’s Doncaster Rovers masterplan… 
 
Ali Maxwell: “Look at Reece James’ goal for Doncaster, that’s their left-back. He played in midfield today and Darren Moore had a masterplan, it was being criticised for being too much of a defensive line-up, but if James can score goals like that then maybe he should play left midfield more often.” 
 
On League Two entertainers, Carlisle United… 
 
Ali Maxwell: “A lot of credit has to go to Chris Beech, they’re playing entertaining football and winning games too. They take a ton of shots and don’t face many. Basic analysis, but a good recipe for success!”

Advertisement block