Three West Ham United loanees took to the field for their respective adopted clubs over the weekend.
Despite his team going down to a damaging 3-1 defeat at Drogheda United, young midfielder Alfie Lewis made an impression for St Patrick’s Athletic in the League of Ireland Premier Division.
On his fourth start, and eighth appearance of the campaign so far, the 21-year-old – who joined the Saints on loan in February until 26 June 2021, which coincides with half a campaign in Ireland – was the source of several impressive skill moves.
The midfielder saw his team go two goals down in the early stages at Head In The Game Park courtesy of strikes from Dane Massey and Mark Doyle.
St Pat’s did manage to pull a goal back with ten minutes remaining through Nahum Melvin-Lambert’s close-range finish, but Jordan Ademayo struck late on to seal the three points for Drogheda.
Despite the result, however, central midfielder Lewis showed off his creative side with several neat passes and skill moves, as highlighted by the club’s social media channels.
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— St Patrick's Athletic FC (@stpatsfc) May 16, 2021
2nd appearance for @AlfieLewis in our weekly skills video. Lovely footwork on show here! #StPatsFC | #Saints2021 pic.twitter.com/tJai5acWZ7
Lewis, who has six goals and two assists in 70 appearances for West Ham’s U23s team to his name in recent seasons, will hope to develop further under the tutelage of manager Stephen O’Donnell.
Following two defeats inside a week, the Pat’s – who finished sixth in the competition last season – sit in second place, six points behind local rivals Shamrock Rovers.
Forward Xande Silva’s loan spell at Aris Thessaloniki FC concluded in frustrating fashion as they finished their Super League Greece season in third place after a final-day 0-0 draw at AEK Athens.
Despite having placed second for the vast majority of the first 32 of 36 match rounds, Aris’ surprisingly successful campaign ended with six games without a win, two of those games – both losses to PAOK Thessaloniki – saw them overtaken by their local city rivals.
In an evenly-matched game at Athens Olympic Stadium, Silva began the game as a substitute and was introduced with 16 minutes of the game to go, but could not help his side make the necessary breakthrough.
Despite PAOK suffering defeat in both their final two games, two draws for Aris saw them fail to capitalise on their rivals’ slip-up.
As a result, 24-year-old Silva’s season ended with a total of four goals and three assists in 33 appearances for his adopted side.
Also making a late appearance for his team off the bench was Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson, who featured for the final eight minutes of FC Porto’s 3-0 win over Rio Ave on Saturday afternoon.
The victory saw the Dragões secure second place in the 2020/21 Primeira Liga table, ahead of Benfica but behind Sporting Lisbon, with one game left to go: a final game at home to Belenenses on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, defender Winston Reid will hope to make his mark in the next week as Brentford kick-off their Championship Play-Offs campaign with a trip to AFC Bournemouth on Monday evening, before hosting the return game on Saturday afternoon.
And whilst Gonçalo Cardoso was missing for FC Basel with illness this weekend, his adopted team did manage to seal UEFA Europa Conference League qualification with a 4-0 win over FC Zurich on Saturday.
They now require just a point at bottom team Sion on Friday to secure second place.
