Gab Sutton's EFL Team of the Week: Darren Moore takes manager gong

• Gab Sutton is a football expert who specialises in the Sky Bet EFL.

After every weekend of action, he builds an EFL Team of the Week and picks out a Sporting Life Star performer.

Goalkeeper

Will Mannion – Cambridge: Cambridge needed Will Mannion’s penalty heroics to keep out Josh Magennis from the spot in Easter Monday’s 3-1 victory over Wigan, at a time when they only had a one-goal first half lead.

Jack Stevens had started 33 of the U’s first 38 league games of 2023-24, but his March injury ruled him out for the Easter Weekend, but that’s where Mannion has taken his opportunity – grabbing the headlines against the Latics, after a clean sheet at Barnsley on Good Friday.

Defenders

Connor Lemonheigh-Evans – Stockport: Stockport’s three consecutive wins to nil has extended their unbeaten streak to eight games, with the leaders six points clear of fourth-placed MK Dons with two games in hand on them, 10 of fifth-placed Barrow.

The Hatters just need nine points from their remaining six games to mathematically guarantee automatic promotion, this being if all the other results go against them.

As such, Easter Monday’s 1-0 victory over AFC Wimbledon feels crucial and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans aided that result with a sharp, diligent second half performance out wide against the club he was on loan at earlier in the campaign, as well as the versatile midfielder having scored in Good Friday’s 3-0 victory at Forest Green.

Zak Vyner – Bristol City: We’re giving Vyner a smidge of leeway, here, seeing as he might not have got into our team had Jamie Vardy put away the backpass he played his way in Bristol City’s victory over Leicester on Good Friday.

The former Rotherham defender was otherwise imperious against the Foxes, though, and in the other 1-0 victory of City’s Easter Weekend, at Plymouth Argyle, where he was successful in all four of his tackles, won two interceptions, made three clearances and two blocks.

Steve Cook – QPR: Comparably to Mary Poppins, Steve Cook seems to bring joy and success everywhere he goes.

After inspiring Bournemouth to historic success over a decade that brought memories to last a lifetime, Cook led Nottingham Forest to promotion in 2021-22, bringing organisational nous to Steve Cooper’s side between Joe Worrall and Scott McKenna after arriving in January.

Now, it’s QPR’s turn to fall in love with the experienced centre-back, who’s played a huge role in their resurgence from six points adrift of safety when Gareth Ainsworth was sacked in late October, to starting April in the heady heights of 16th under Martí Cifuentes.

Mamadou Jobe – Cambridge: Mamadou Jobe’s preparation for life in the EFL was five non-league loans across three years – at St Neots Town, Concord Rangers, St Albans City, Maidstone United and Gateshead – from step-4 to step-1.

Nobody would argue Jobe hadn’t earnt his first EFL start for Cambridge at Barnsley on Good Friday, yet equally few people expected him to make such an instant impression – both in basic, physical duels and in distribution – against a top League One side.

The 21-year-old’s dominant showing at Oakwell after recall was crucial to the U’s acquiring the victory that ultimately stopped them from getting dragged into the dogfight, and the second, against Wigan on Monday, that took them six points clear.

Talk about impact.

Leif Davis – Ipswich: Technically, Leif Davis hasn’t operated as a wing-back once this season, so we’re cheating a little bit using him this way, but his up-and-down stamina would lend itself to that kind of role, so we’re prepared to bend the rules to get this man in.

The Ipswich stalwart has been crucial to their successful Easter Weekend, setting up the winners in both the 1-0 victory at Blackburn and the dramatic 3-2 triumph over Southampton, as well as grabbing the opener in the latter.

It’s tough, but possible, to find left-backs at this level who have something approaching Davis’ pace and stamina, but none of them are able to exert all that energy and still have a cool head to make the right decisions in the final third.

With Luke Shaw injured, Ben Chilwell woefully out of form and right-backs or centre-backs by trade being the only alternative options, Alfie Doughty could be in the England conversation – and at that point, dare we say, why not consider Davis?

Midfielders

Charlie Lakin* – Sutton: Sutton’s recruitment looks much stronger in January than it’s proven to have been in the summer, and there’s no stronger example of improvement in that area than the form of Charlie Lakin.

Hopes were guarded when the tenacious midfielder joined on loan from Burton, after an uneventful few years, but the 24-year-old looks to be rebuilding his career at Gander Green Lane and has been pivotal to the U’s four game winning streak, including a perfect Easter Weekend.

Lakin bagged the opener in Monday’s 3-1 victory over Swindon, taking his tally to five goals in 17.

Nelson Khumbeni – Morecambe: Despite obvious quality, League One promotion contenders Bolton miss a hint of physicality and tenacity in their midfield, so there may yet be a long-term future for Nelson Khumbeni at the UniBol.

For now, the ball-winner is content with being a hit at the more modestly-size Lancashire club in Morecambe, whom he’s inspired to back-to-back derby victories across the Easter Weekend over Accrington Stanley and Barrow to rekindle their Play-Off aspirations.

Teddy Bishop – Lincoln:

Similarly, perhaps, to Chuks Aneke or Jonny Williams, Teddy Bishop is a player who has had to settle for a lower level than his true capability in his career due to injuries.

Now 27, Bishop is yet to start more than 28 league games in a season, and exactly a third of his career league appearances have come from the bench, despite him being always being one of the best players for his team – be that Ipswich or Lincoln.

So, being unavailable through injury is one factor behind sparing usage; another is the recognition from management of the risk of him getting injured, and the subsequent reluctance to bombard him with starts, hence he’s been given 60 minutes here, 20 minutes there and the occasional rest rather than made a regular first team fixture.

With that in mind, it’s all the more impressive that City have come to rely on Bishop more heavily due to injuries to Conor McGrandles and Ethan Hamilton at the beginning of March, and he’s stepped up superbly with two big performances across the Easter Weekend.

Thanks to the midfielder’s brilliance, the Imps cling onto their Play-Off spot with a fifth consecutive league win at Carlisle on Monday.

Forwards

Gassan Ahadme – Cambridge: Gassan Ahadme was in excellent form for Burton in 2022, but a deadline day move to Ipswich that summer compromised his footballing momentum, even if it helped him financially.

The striker featured just six times for Ipswich in their promotion in 2022-23, all from the bench, and his loan return to the Brewers didn’t go to plan, so he’s had to rediscover some form at Cambridge on loan this season, with a view to earning himself a positive next permanent move.

2023-24 has been up-and-down for the physical front-man, in a team not exactly oozing with creativity, but either side of injury he has eight goals in his last seven, thanks to three in two across the Easter Weekend.

Ahadme provided clever movement for both goals in the 3-1 victory over Wigan, after producing an excellent looping header in Good Friday’s 2-0 win at Barnsley.

Olly Sanderson - Sutton: Having topped goalscoring charts with Fulham at most youth age groups from Under-9s, Sanderson enhanced his reputation as a young striker who’s full of energy and hungry for goals on loan at Oxford City, where he scored 13 in 29 appearances in the first half of the season.

After jumping up a league mid-season, the 20-year-old is growing his name even further at League Two Sutton, for whom he grabbed a brace in Good Friday’s crucial 2-1 win at Salford through two sniper’s finishes.

The first exploited Omar Sowunmi’s knockdown from Harry Beautyman’s deep-flighted free-kick, the second, profiting from weak defending from a Josh Coley cross.

Sanderson played more of a decoy role in the subsequent 3-1 victory over Swindon – perhaps he’d become a marked man, and in doing so gave others the space to capitalize.

Manager

Steve Morison – Sutton: It’s hard to say whether even the four-game winning streak Sutton have enjoyed will be enough to keep them in League Two, given that they could still go a point off safety again on Saturday having played three games more than Colchester.

What can be said with some confidence, despite the favourability of the recent fixture list, is that they are fighting tooth-and-nail to save their EFL status, and that Steve Morison has earnt the opportunity to lead the South Londoners into 2024-25, in whichever league that season takes place.

Morison can be an abrasive character at times, as one or two journalists have found to their cost, but he helped cultivate a siege mentality as a captain at Millwall, and could be doing the same thing as a manager at a crucial stage.

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