Defender Craig Cathcart claimed the bragging rights over his international colleague Jonny Evans yesterday as Watford ran out 2-1 winners against Leicester City in what was Brendan Rodgers' first match in charge of the Foxes.
Watford remain in eighth spot in the Premier League table, eight points ahead of Leicester, following Andre Gray’s injury-time winner over Rodgers’ new charges.
Meanwhile in the Championship, Leeds United stay in contention for promotion as Stuart Dallas played the final 13 minutes of their comprehensive 4-0 success over fellow promotion hopefuls West Bromwich Albion at Elland Road.
The 27-year-old’s arrival on the pitch on Friday night was his 44th appearance as a substitute for United meaning he is now joint-second in the list of most used substitutes in the history of the club!
Left-back Jamal Lewis was part of the Norwich City side which won 3-1 at Millwall although team-mate Michael McGovern was not involved ver the weekend.
George Saville’s hopes of automatic promotion with Middlesbrough took a dent as Tony Pulis’ side could only manage a scoreless draw at lowly Wigan Athletic.
In League One, former Northern Ireland under-21 midfielder Cameron McGeehan was on target as Barnsley remained in the second automatic promotion place with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Southend United.
Striker Will Grigg weighed in with his third assist in six games for Sunderland who are just two points behind Barnsley in third spot following a 2-0 home win against Plymouth Argyle.
Struggling Oxford United also picked up a welcome three points after their 2-1 home success over Scunthorpe United with former Glenavon midfielder Mark Sykes providing an assist for United’s opening goal on his home debut.
The 21-year-old admitted though that he was off the pace in the first half of the contest. “I thought I didn’t do as well as I should have in the first half,” he told the Oxford Mail. “I’ll always be my biggest critic when I know I’m not doing well, but you can’t get yourself too down or you’ll affect the whole performance.
“I knew at half-time I just had to go and do something about it.
“Thankfully the ball dropped to me in the box from Jordan (Graham) and I’ve just picked out Jerome (Sinclair) and he tucked it away. It was a nice way to go 1-0 up.”
Elsewhere Fermanagh man Kyle Lafferty was an unused substitute for Rangers who drew 1-1 at Aberdeen in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup. Dons’ winger Niall McGinn did get a run-out from the bench however when he was brought on for the injured Gary Mackay-Steven after only 16 minutes.
