We start with Eirik Johansen who agreed an extension to his loan deal on Tuesday, meaning he will stay at Scunthorpe United until the end of the season.
Johansen’s five performances between the sticks for the Iron have been earning rave reviews in North Lincolnshire and he turned in his most impressive showing yet in the 2-1 win over Leyton Orient on Good Friday.
The Norwegian stopper made two fine saves to give his side their first win in four, which temporarily moved his team out of the League One drop zone.
However, there was nothing Eirik could do to prevent Scunthorpe from slipping to defeat and back into the relegation places in their next encounter – a narrow 1-0 away loss to Bournemouth.
Elsewhere in the Football League, Wayne Bridge helped his Brighton and Hove Albion to two more precious points over the Easter Weekend, playing all 180 minutes in draws with Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest.
The Seagulls are now in sixth place in the Championship table and are well placed to secure a place in the play-offs.
French utility man Jeremy Helan’s Sheffield Wednesday enjoyed a successful Easter double header, playing full games as the Owls claimed four points from games against Bristol City and Barnsley.
Dave Jones’ men are now in with a fighting chance of beating the drop as one of a clutch of four teams bunched up on 47 points.
Meanwhile, Adam Drury was on the losing side for Burton Albion against Alex Henshall’s Chesterfield in a 1-0 win for the Spireites.
Henshall didn’t make it off the substitute’s bench in the game, while Drury was an 86th minute introduction.
Neither player appeared in their teams’ Easter Monday fixtures.
Unfortunately, it was also an unhappy Easter Weekend for Ryan McGivern at Easter Road as Hibernian continued their slide down the SPL rankings after a 2-1 home defeat to Inverness.
McGivern was shown a yellow card in the 57th minute just to compound a bad day at the office for the Northern Irish defender.
Roque Santa Cruz came off the bench in the 67th minute of Malaga’s 3-1 win over Rayo Vallecano and his team are now within a point of Real Sociadad in the race for fourth place and that final all-important Champions League place.
In Germany, Omar Elabdellaoui played all but three minutes of Eintract Braunschweig’s 2-1 win over Dynamo Dresden to put his side 2nd in the Bundesliga II table.
Karim Rekik and Luca Scapuzzi were unused substitutes for Blackburn and Varese respectively.
Join us next week for Loan Watch where we’ll bring you news of Roque Santa Cruz’s exploits in the Champions League, as his Malaga take on City’s conquerors, Borussia Dortmund.
