Gab Sutton's EFL Team of the Week: JJ McKiernan star performer, Freddie Potts impressive

@GabSutton is a football expert who specialises in the Sky Bet EFL

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GK: Christy Pym, Mansfield

Since leaving Exeter in 2019, Pym has struggled to live up to his potential, struggling with Peterborough in League One and even in his League Two loans with Stevenage and Mansfield, to an extent.

Since moving to the Stags permanently, though, after a public falling out with Posh boss Darren Ferguson, Pym has begun to capture his best form since departing Devon, conceding 12 goals in just 15 appearances.

The 28-year-old recorded his seventh clean sheet of the campaign in a goalless draw with AFC Wimbledon, saving James Tilley’s first half penalty, as well as twice impressively denying the wide forward from open play in the second half.

RB: Brandon Williams, Ipswich

Williams scored a stunning solo goal for Ipswich, in their 4-2 victory over Preston North End, in a man-of-the-match performance.

The 23-year-old tackled Robbie Brady in his own half, then had the ball in the opposition net within nine seconds after a powerful, lung-busting run that captured his passion and determination.

The former Manchester United academy graduate had struggled to build on a breakthrough 2019-20 season at Old Trafford, and toiled in his other East Anglian loan two years later, but Kieran McKenna knew his potential from his time there and is getting everything out of his consistent, versatile right-back, who can also fill in on the left.

CB: Aaron Hayden, Wrexham

Wrexham have kept four clean sheets in seven league games since Aaron Hayden came into the side, having previously recorded none in their first five.

The 26-year-old’s importance can’t be understated: described as a “Rolls-Royce” of a defender and a powerful unit, Hayden is strong in the air, has excellent reading of the game, and plenty of recovery pace.

Hayden was crucial to Saturday’s 1-0 win at Crawley, and if he can cut out the occasional error whilst staying fit for longer, he could have a career higher up in the pyramid.

CB: Maël de Gevigney, Barnsley

When Maël de Gevigney made his debut for Barnsley, he was withdrawn in the first half of a 3-1 home defeat to Oxford, having given away a penalty for the opening goal in a rash display.

To the Frenchman’s credit, he’s responded to that early setback admirably and has since come on leaps and bounds, starring in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Exeter.

Making six clearances and three interceptions, as well as winning four aerial duels and completing two tackles, de Gevigney was a rock for the Reds, but he deserved man-of-the-match award for one pass, alone.

In the lead-up to the winner, the 24-year-old was shaping to play a misplaced clearance short to the flank, only to deceive James Scott by stylishly flicking the ball under his front foot in the other direction, allowing Herbie Kane to create in space.

LB: Jack Sparkes, Portsmouth

Portsmouth moved six points clear in the automatic promotion race on Saturday with a 2-0 victory over Port Vale, thanks to a Colby Bishop brace.

Full-backs have been a huge part of the way they attack, with Joe Morrell and Ben Stevenson providing discipline and balance in midfield.

Sparkes has benefited from that freedom, and has looked bright going forward this season, as well as posing a huge threat with his pin-point crosses, one of which led to Bishop’s opener last time out.

The 23-year-old is improving defensively, too, completing three tackles last time out, and winning the same number of aerial duels.

CM: JJ McKiernan, Morecambe

Non-league experts like Tom Williams and Off The Line Blog applauded Morecambe’s signing of JJ McKiernan, after his impact on loan at Eastleigh last season, and so far their faith – and that of boss Derek Adams - has been vindicated.

The Shrimps have, characteristically, defied expectations once again to be 10th, 11 games in, and with no takeover coming in over the summer to loosen the purse-strings, they were operating on one of the lowest budgets in the league.

They needed to find bargains to compete, and have certainly done that in signing McKiernan, who scored a hat-trick on Saturday to secure a 3-1 win, despite playing with 10-men for 54 minutes due to James Connolly’s dismissal.

Intelligently technical yet tenaciously energetic simultaneously, McKiernan brings excellent link-up play to Morecambe, and loves a solo run, as we saw for his third goal in Essex, before slotting home a cool finish inside the near-post.

CM: Freddie Potts, Wycombe

After featuring briefly for West Ham in their Europa Conference League success last season, Potts is out to achieve a real breakthrough campaign on loan at Wycombe – and so far he’s doing just that.

The prodigiously talented 20-year-old is lighting up Adams Park alongside experienced battler Josh Scowen, and was truly magnificent in the Chairboys’ 4-1 victory at Fleetwood.

With vision, execution, and bags of energy, Potts played two key passes at Highbury, created one big chance, scored once, laid off another and put in as many as four tackles.

Keep up this form and the starlet could be challenging for a place in the England Under-21s squad…

RW: Isaiah Jones, Middlesbrough

In Jones’ breakout season for Middlesbrough, 2021-22, he operated as a conventional right wing-back, attacking the flank at pace, before showing composure for his pin-point cutbacks, but 2022-23 didn’t quite go to plan as he started 12 fewer league games.

Nonetheless, the 24-year-old has the speed to stretch his legs in wide open spaces, but also the agility to thrive in tight ones, and his current role brings him into the game more prominently, than we saw even two seasons ago.

This season, his first thought is so often to attack the penalty area, and he’s been prepared to use his skill to be elusive in a tight block of two to four opposing players, rather than simply go wide of the block and cross from there.

Although this approach carries more risk, it increases his chances of executing his final ball: either a shot, in which case the goal is closer, or a final pass or cross, in which case the intended target is also closer.

Although Jones was hugely impressive in 2021-22, he only got eight assists and one goal: relatively low, arguably, for a top attacking performer, even if he was a wing-back.

Based on Saturday’s 4-0 victory at neighbours Sunderland, Jones, operating on the right of the attacking quartet in a 4-2-3-1, he could get into double-figures for direct goal contributions by Christmas.

CAM: Arnór Sigurðsson, Blackburn

Blackburn have plenty of options in the striker department this season, but are simultaneously a little short.

Sam Gallagher is physical but limited, Harry Leonard is an unproven youngster, Tyrhys Dolan and Sammie Szmodics can operate as a false nine but aren’t out-and-out centre-forwards, Niall Ennis is selfless but profligate, while Deadline Day recruit Semir Telalović is stepping up from Regionalliga West (German 4th tier) football with Borussia Mönchengladbach II.

As such, Rovers can’t rely on the Jordan Rhodes, Adam Armstrong or Ben Brereton type goal machines they’ve had in previous years, and need to spread the productivity around.

What helps the Lancashire outfit massively, though, is that Szmodics already has seven for the season in an attacking midfield role, while Arnór Sigurðsson is now up to three league goals for the campaign after a brace in Saturday’s 4-0 victory at QPR.

Sigurðsson hasn’t yet played more than 60 minutes for Blackburn, and isn’t fully fit, but there were signs of him at Loftus Road cutting inside from the left, linking up with Szmodics, which was how both goals came about.

Once the Icelander finds peak fitness, he could be tough to stop, and swing the role of Rovers’ centre-forward away from goalscoring, towards facilitating the goalscoring potential in others.

LW: Jordan Gibson, Carlisle

When Jon Mellish turned the ball into his own net, 28 minutes in on Saturday to give Bolton the lead, few expected the story of the match to be a 3-1 Carlisle victory and a Jordan Gibson hat-trick.

Nonetheless, it turned into a memorable day out for travelling supporters, who managed to bring 4,500 to the UniBol despite north-west train strikes, and were rewarded emphatically.

The Cumbrians had produced a competitive performance in Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Peterborough, in which Jordan Gibson’s 96th-minute equaliser served as a catalyst for what was achieved in Lancashire four days later.

Sam Lavelle was immense at the back, likewise experienced striker Joe Garner despite his penalty having been saved by Nathan Baxter, who’s man-of-the-match performance denied Carlisle an even bigger margin of victory.

Gibson was the star of the show, netting from the spot just before half-time, then wrongfooted Will Forrester to dig out a looping effort from just outside the left-hand tip of the penalty box, before slotting into an empty net in an injury-time counter-attack with Baxter having gone forward for a corner.

Previously an enigmatic winger who showed only flashes of potential in League Two, Gibson has become a much more industrious, tactically aware operator across the last two years under Paul Simpson, who enjoyed the best performance of his second stint in charge.

CF: Harry Smith, Sutton

Sutton have scored 15 goals in the seven league games Harry Smith starts, as opposed to one in five when the target man hasn’t.

The 6’5” striker made a huge impact when he came into the side on Saturday, and the team that had taken a paltry one point from their previous 10, thrashed Walsall 4-0.

It wasn’t just his height that made him dangerous: Smith produced an improvised, left-footed volley in a crowded area to prod home the second after a delightful Omari Patrick free-kick opened the scoring, then slid in at the back-post from a looping Christian N’Guessan cross, though Joe Riley got the last touch.

That Riley touch, technically, denied Smith his match-ball, because he subsequently headed home a similarly looping cross from the right, this time from Joe Kizzi, to beat Owen Evans inside his near-post.

Smith’s performance and non-hat-trick served as a reminder that, while key departures mean Sutton briefly lost some synergy that had been key to their journey over the last three years, they do have on paper their best ever squad in terms of proven EFL quality.

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