Five talking points from the EFL weekend including Ravel Morrison's resurgence under Rooney
- Gabriel Sutton
- 7 March 2022
EFL pundit Gab Sutton has his say on the action from the weekend, including Morrison's brace against Barnsley and Millwall's winning streak.
Under Wayne Rooney, however, the 29-year-old looks in a better headspace and is focused on making the most of the here-and-now, helping Derby in their battle to beat the drop in the Championship.
Morrison was named man-of-the-match in a 2-0 win over Barnsley on the weekend after bagging both goals. Who knows - it may not be too late to build a Premier League career.
Millwall on the March?
Gary Rowett's side have won their last five league games, with opposition including QPR and Sheffield United, to boost their play-off prospects.
The Lions are solid and well-drilled, with a back-three of Dan Ballard, Jake Cooper and Murray Wallace giving little away, but Jed Wallace's return from injury has perhaps been the biggest factor in their run of form.
The lively, creative forward has not been quite at his best previously this season, and spent some time on the sidelines through injury, but now looks close to the dazzling form we saw from him in 2017/18, 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Portsmouth hit four past Stanley with 10 men
Positive, front-foot game management was required to secure a 2-1 victory over Burton, and after an awkward first half against Doncaster, Pompey eventually found their rhythm and ended up 4-0 winners.
After that, Danny Cowley's side showed resolve to not only overturn an early deficit at Shrewsbury but persist to break down 10-men with a late Louis Thompson goal, then even greater resolve to come back from three down at half time to Fleetwood and secure a point in injury time.
Again, Portsmouth conceded early on against Oxford but won 3-2 to keep their play-off rivals within touching distance, then beat Accrington Stanley 4-0 last time out - playing 69 minutes with 10-men.
MK Dons open up the race for automatic promotion
After having a man sent off, most teams believe it's impossible to press efficiently, and so withdraw into their defensive third in hope they can hold out for long enough to prompt a chaotic finale.
MK, however, still had the audacity to press intelligently at the right moments, with the introduction of Kasumu proving crucial to the turnaround - the 22-year-old looks every inch a Manning player and could help them challenge Wigan and Rotherham for automatic promotion.
Sutton into the top three
His physicality proved too much to handle, and with plenty of quality to boot, Boldewijn is starting to show the form he hinted at in previous spells with Crawley and Notts County, while producing the work rate required to fit into Matt Gray's 4-4-2.
