Five things you might have missed in the EFL
Holly Hunt reviews the lesser-spotted talking points you might’ve missed during this gameweek’s action across the Championship, League One and Two.
Swindon earmark derby day win:
Swindon Town’s last derby victory over Oxford United dated back to March 2001 in the old Division Two. That was until this weekend, when Swindon notched up at 2-1 win against their rivals. Unfortunately, this encounter was blighted by an act of vandalism in the days leading up to the clash: a statue outside the Kassam Stadium was defaced by a group of Swindon fans taking a late night trip to Oxford’s home ground who spray painted ‘STFC’ on the sculpt of a bull.
The League One teams met after a forced re-schedule last month due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Swindon camp. Despite crowds not being allowed to attend the highly anticipated fixture, Swindon fans draped banners over the A420 bridge to show their support for the team. Home-grown forward Matty Taylor opened the scoring for Oxford and the Us held onto the lead for most of the game. Swindon substitute Tom Broadbent levelled for the visitors before Tyler Smith turned it around in added time to make 2-1 to the Robins.
Stoke City on Thomas Muller’s radar:
New Sheffield Wednesday boss Tony Pulis has never lost a game to Stoke City in the 11 matches he’s come up against his ex-employers – a run which continued on Saturday. Pulis transformed Stoke from a mid-table Championship team to Europa League candidates across two separate spells in Staffordshire, but this time he was in the opposite dugout.
The Owls shared the spoils with the Potters in a goalless draw at Hillsborough, and some Wednesday fans branded it one of the worst displays from their side this campaign. Meanwhile, Stoke supporters were simply buoyed by Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller name-dropping the club in a post-match interview after beating Stuttgart 3-1 in the Bundesliga. The forward jokingly remarked, “How do British people say that, you have to show it on a windy night in Stoke? Or something like that”: what a claim to fame for the Potters!
QPR’s social media comeuppance:
Queens Park Rangers – more specifically, QPR’s PR department – were left red-faced after tweeting a video of the inside of the Brentford Community Stadium with a caption that read “Friday night from the LEGO Brentford Community Stadium”. It was a comment on the Bees’ multi-coloured (hence neutral) seating design, a result of their stadium being shared with the rugby union side London Irish.
Pacesetters Brentford extended their unbeaten run to seven games, edging their West London rivals in a 2-1 score-line, and simply responded to the tweet with a smiling yellow Lego figurehead after the final whistle. The post engaged with over 7,000 football fans – genius!
Delfouneso’s linesman feud:
Bolton Wanderers sealed an emphatic 3-0 win over Southend United in League Two on Saturday, but it could’ve been 7-0 had it not been for the offside flag. Wanderers had not one, two, or three goals ruled out, but four!
Nathan Delfouneso and Eoin Doyle were denied by the flag on two occasions late in the first period, but Delfouneso eventually made the score-sheet minutes later when he headed home on the stroke of half-time. After the restart, Doyle dispatched his spot-kick to make it 2-0 and Delfouneso looked to add a third — but the forward’s close-range effort was once again discounted. Strike partner Doyle added another for Wanderers and Delfouneso had the ball in the back of the net for a third time in the stoppage interval — but his last gasp effort was again waved away by the flag.
Ellison up to his old tricks:
EFL veteran Kevin Ellison is a known prankster. The Newport midfielder pulled his latest impromptu stunt this mid-week when he was caught on camera doing high knees with the match officials before the Exiles’ League Two clash with Walsall on Tuesday evening. He joined in with the referees’ warm-up before breaking away to train with his teammates.
Ellison himself tweeted out a response with a series of emojis, saying: “not everyday you get to warm up with the officials #baldies”. Despite going hairless, the 41-year-old is still going strong with Newport, having been released by Morecambe in the summer after nine years on the club’s books. Not to mention he never fails to raise a smile!
Follow Holly on Twitter @hollyhunt10
The Offside Rule 
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