Reading of England midfielder, Ovie Ejaria made history with a new record in the lower division of Queensland, while Arsenal’s reserves team striker, Folarin Balogun proved his mettle once again in the youth league, while Nathan Tella also appeared in the English FA Cup.
The day’s biggest highlight, though, belonged to Ejaria set a new English Championship record for the season during Reading’s 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers at Madejski Stadium, where info provided by football statistics website, Whoscored.com revealed that he made eight key passes.
Megasportsarena.com reports that the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup winner with England made his first start for The Royals since March 2, having recovered from a hamstring injury that saw him miss matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest.
In 31 appearances in the second-tier of which 30 were starts, Ejaria has averaged 1.8 key passes per game, scored two goals and registered five assists, but he could not be invited to the Super Eagles for their upcoming matches against Benin Republic and Lesotho because his change of nationality has not been approved by FIFA.
Ejaria’s feat against The Hoops was a record in a Championship match this season and it came during a game in which he started alongside another Nigerian-born youngster, Michael Olise in midfield while Omatsone ‘Sone’ Aluko was benched for the entirety of the game.
Also in England, Balogun got a crucial equalizer that helped Arsenal settle for a 1-1 draw with Everton in the English Premier League 2 clash on Sunday afternoon in Southport, where he was joined in The Gunners’ starting 11 by Tolaji Bola, Daniel Oyegoke, Ryan Alebiosu and Tim Akinola.
The Toffees were leading 1-0 at the break courtesy of Nathan Broadhead, following a super cross from Matthew Mallon, but Balogun was not closed down by the Everton defence nine minutes from time and he made The Toffees pay for it by putting Arsenal back on level erms.
After curling the ball into the far corner from just outside the box, the England youth international, who was born to Nigerian parents in United States of America, took his tally for the season to 12 goals in 24 appearances.
In the English FA Cup, Nathan Tella was in action for Southampton in a 3-0 victory over Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium and helped The Saints advance to the last four of the competition.
While Philip Chinedu Billing and Dominic Solanke started for Bournemouth, but could not save their side from losing at home, Tella entered the game as a substitute in the 85th minute as a replacement for Moussa Djenepo.
Djenepo opened scoring in the 37th minute before Nathan Redmond doubled their lead in the first minute of first-half stoppage time and he converted again from a rebound after Stuart Armstrong struck the post to give Southampton a 3-0 lead in the 59th minute.
In what has been a breakout season for Tella, the former Arsenal schoolboy has recorded 14 appearances for Southampton’s first team, and has been involved with their last six matches in the EPL, but his only assist came in the FA Cup fifth round win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
