Spurs loan watch: Championship round up
By Tom Vinall
On Saturday afternoon, Dane Scarlett's Oxford United and Ashley Phillips' Stoke City were in Championship action in the final set of games before the October international break.
Oxford were on the road against fellow newly promoted side Portsmouth, whose manager John Mousinho was an active Oxford player when they appointed him as a manager, whilst Stoke traveled to Swansea. Oxford's game was one of the Lunchtime kick offs, whilst Stoke played at the more traditional 15:00 slot.
The game at Portsmouth was not void of drama for the U's. After just four minutes, Elias Sorensen's penalty was saved by Jamie Cumming in the Oxford goal. However, after 58 minutes - Portsmouth took the lead regardless. Des Buckingham responded by introducing Scarlett for Mark Harris with 21 minutes to go.
Just three minutes later and Louis Sibley, who had come on at the same time as Scarlett, equalised for Oxford and they were able to get their second point on the road this week. This point leaves them in 10th place in the Championship, still just four points off the play-offs.
As for Phillips, for the second time in a row, he was named amongst the substitutes as Stoke made it four points and a clean sheet in a week with a 0-0 draw away to Swansea.
This draw leaves Stoke in 16th place in the Championship with 10 points from nine games.
After the break, Oxford will host West Bromwich Albion, in another early kick off, whilst Stoke will host Norwich City, as manager Narcis Pelach returns to the club for the first time since leaving his first team coach role for the Potters a few weeks back.
In better news for both players, they have both been called up to the England U20 squad for the forthcoming international break, where they will face Italy and Czechia in the U20 elite league, where they currently sit second out of eight teams, with four points from their opening two games.