Nathan Holland

Nathan Holland came off the bench to produce a moment of magic to come up trumps for Oxford United as all three Hammers on loan in EFL League One finished on the winning side.

The 23-year-old winger won the game for the U’s deep into injury time at home to Portsmouth, sending Karl Robinson’s side – and the majority of Kassam Stadium – into delirium.

Nathan came on with  35 minutes remaining to attempt to inspire Oxford and the winger could even claim the assist for Cameron Brannagan’s 82nd-minute equaliser, squaring the ball for his teammate to curl in a marvellous effort from 30 yards.

Then, in the sixth minute of injury time, Holland’s own moment of inspiration arrived.

Picking the ball up from a throw-in on the left, the winger dribbled round three trailing defenders and, 25 yards out, swung a delightfully dipping effort right the way across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner, in one fell swoop winning the game for his side.
Conor Coventry, meanwhile, played his part a third consecutive win for MK Dons: a 2-1 win over Lincoln City at Stadium MK.

In a match which also featured two other former Hammers – Anthony Scully played for Lincoln whilst Dan Kemp made his Dons debut off the bench – the Republic of Ireland U21s captain was typically influential.

After Scully’s cross had led to Lincoln taking an early lead through John Marquis, Coventry kickstarted the move which resulted in Harry Darling heading in an equaliser five minutes before half-time.

Warren O’Hara then headed in the Dons’ second moments after the restart to seal a 2-1 win over the Imps, Coventry’s third in four appearances since joining Liam Manning’s side on loan for the rest of the season. MK Dons now sit third, just a point behind Wigan in second.
And Mipo Odubeko also finished on the winning side for Doncaster Rovers, the bottom-of-the-table side springing a major shock by beating Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light.

Odubeko played 75 minutes of the surprise victory defend stoutly to see out the win, with the West Ham loanee an ever-willing runner for balls over the top.

ClaretandHugh says: Nathan Holland hasn’t quite reached the “whatever happened to ” category but there was a time when he was seen as the academy product most likely to follow Declan into the first team reckoning. He’s had his injury worries but it’s great to see him doing so well at Oxford and maybe, just maybe, there remains some sort of chance at the hammers although frankly we’d soon expect to see him on his permanently given the shortage of chances being offered to our youngsters. It’s good to see Conor getting his chance too after a lack lustre loan spell with Peterborough and Mipo appears top be on his way up at Doncaster although one wonders how being involved in a rock bottom side will help his development in the long term. Much the same sort of situation faced Conor of course and he was eventually forced to move on