There was a mixed bag of results for the Blues temporarily plying their trade elsewhere, but the young winger and Ash Smith-Brown had reason to celebrate with Oxford United.
The left-back played the full 90 minutes to help the managerless U’s to a last-minute win over promotion chasing Charlton Athletic and at the other end Buckley-Ricketts proved lively.
He’d already hit the post when he turned the ball back for Ryan Ledson to crash home to secure a 3-2 victory.
Angus Gunn also enjoyed success, with the former playing the whole game at centre-half as Oldham beat Bradford 2-1 for their first home win of 2018.
In East Anglia, Gunn enjoyed a relatively quiet afternoon as the Canaries beat Middlesbrough 1-0, his fifth clean sheet in six league games.
The game came too soon for Boro loanee, Jack Harrison.
Elsewhere in the Football League, Rodney Kongolo came off the bench as Doncaster drew 2-2 at Portsmouth, while Jacob Davenport suffered a 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa on his Burton Albion debut.
However, the young midfielder impressed for the Brewers, with their match report stating:
“A debut performance from Jacob Davenport also suggested that Clough’s shrewd work in the loan market may just bear fruit, the Manchester City youngster looking calm and assured on the ball and often finding pockets of space to work in.”
Charlie Oliver also suffered a loss in his first game for Fleetwood Town, who were beaten 3-2 by Scunthorpe.
The 20-year-old defender was introduced just before half-time and manager, Uwe Rosler, was impressed with his performance.
He said: “[I’ve] thrown him in today.
“A baptism of fire and he came through that really well. Today was a great lesson for him and he did really well.”
North of the boarder, Brandon Barker lasted only seven minutes before he went off injured as Hibernian beat Rangers 2-1. However, the midfielder played earlier in the week and netted his first goal for the Club to secure all three points against Motherwell.
In the Netherlands, Thierry Ambrose enjoyed a goal scoring performance for NAC Breda, but couldn’t prevent them from slipping to a 3-1 defeat to Ajax.
A loose ball fell kindly to the Frenchman, who was lurking on the edge of the area and he made no mistake as he fired an unstoppable effort into the roof of the net to give his side the lead.
Angelino also went close for Breda, with Manu Garcia - who earned Team of the Month honours in January - and Pablo Mari completing the full game, while Paolo Fernandes came off the bench with 21 minutes remaining.
In the Dutch second division, Aaron Nemane was making his fourth appearance for the Go Ahead Eagles, who suffered a 2-1 defeat at Cambur.
Meanwhile, Pablo Maffeo proved adept at both ends of the pitch as Girona scored twice to consign Athletic Bilbao to defeat.
Starting at right-back the young Spaniard will no doubt be pleased to keep a clean sheet.
He also provided an attacking outlet, winning the penalty from which Christhian Stuani opened the scoring and minutes later he was denied by the crossbar.
Aleix Garcia was introduced late on as Girona saw out the game, while in the second division, Yaw Yeboah came off the bench for Real Oviedo, helping the Blues hold on to a 2-1 victory over rivals Sporting Gijon.
Galatasary played twice this week and after sitting out Thursday’s cup tie, Jason Denayer was restored against Sivasspor. The Belgian defender was making his 16th appearance of the season at centre-half but couldn’t prevent his side going losing 2-1.
Finally, Marlos Moreno moved to Flamengo in January and life in Rio got off to a winning start for the Colombian.
He was introduced from the bench in the second half to help his new Club to a 1-0 win over Nova Iguacu, which sealed a semi-final spot in the Campeonato Carioca.
