With 31 EFL games live on Sky Sports+ on Tuesday night, we take a look at some stories with nine different players from the Championship, League One and League Two.
Murphy: Me and my brother speak every day!
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Portsmouth’s Josh Murphy tells Sky Sports how he still speaks with twin brother and Newcastle midfielder Jacob Murphy every day despite their distance apart in the country.
For two people so close, they could hardly find themselves further away within England. Josh Murphy is down on the south coast in Portsmouth, his twin brother Jacob is up in the North East at Newcastle.
We always said we’d try and be closer in our careers, but we’ve just always ended up being on the opposite ends of the country!” Murphy tells Sky Sports. “We speak every day, so that’s nice.”
While both players started their careers at Norwich City, they have diverged since for a variety of reasons. But every achievement and landmark is celebrated by each as if it’s their own.
When footage of Jacob’s obvious pride at making his first Champions League appearance last season for Newcastle went viral, Josh felt it too.
“It was always a dream of ours to play in the Championship League, and you could see how happy and proud he was to do it,” he recalls.
“I remember we had a game on that night so I was doing my pre-match prep. I had the game on and when I saw it I had goosebumps myself because I had so much pride and joy and I could see how much it meant to him. It felt the same to me, as if I was there playing that game.”
How confidence has seen the Championship’s in-form star flourish
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Borja Sainz tells Sky Sports how he has hit the ground running for Norwich City in the Championship this season.
After a stop-start first campaign in England with Norwich City, Borja Sainz is really showing what he can do this time around. He has been in imperious form for Norwich City, with goals and assists flowing.
He rates the hat-trick performance against Derby last month, which helped him along to winning the Sky Bet Championship Player award for September, as the most impressive of his career.
“Yes it was the best,” he says. “To get a hat-trick is so difficult, to score three goals in one match.”
Last season Sainz got injured in pre-season which meant it took him a while to establish himself. This time around he is emerging as Norwich’s key man.
“I think it’s all because I have more confidence,” the 23-year-old Spaniard adds. “The last year when I came in I got injured on my second day.
“This year I was able to prepare in the summer to stay strong in the league, and I think the confidence I have is the most important thing for me.”
James: Archie Gray can go to the top
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Dan James tells Sky Sports why he believes his former Leeds team-mate and current Tottenham midfielder Archie Gray will reach the top.
A lot has changed at Leeds United in the summer, with the core of the squad that narrowly missed out in the play-offs heading off to pastures new.
Dan James remained, and has watched on proudly as Archie Gray has gone on to try and establish himself at Tottenham.
As someone himself who jumped from the Championship to a Premier League giant, the former Manchester United man can certainly relate to the path Gray has trodden.
While the 18-year-old is yet to start for Spurs in the Premier League, James feels that his former team-mate will unquestionably make it at the top.
“You saw what he did in the Championship in his first season,” James says. “At times he was unplayable.
“I know a few of the lads at Spurs and they’ll look after him. He’ll mature more as a player and being away from home he’ll strive and be absolutely brilliant.
“It was easy to forget how old he was from how good he was last season. We played Chelsea away [in the FA Cup], and he went into central midfield after playing right-back all season and he was absolutely brilliant.
“He will show that quality again in the Premier League.”
Slonina: Why I fell in love with goalkeeping
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Barnsley goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina – on loan from Chelsea – tells Sky Sports about his love for football from a young age growing up in the USA.
Gabriel Slonina is enjoying a stint away from Chelsea on loan at Barnsley this season, soaking up the EFL in all its glory.
The United States international, with one cap to his name, is still just 20 but has impressed in League One, realising a dream that he has had since he was at a far younger age.
“It was always football for me since I was three or four,” he says.
“I used to play outfield a bit but I was just so much bigger than the other kids, so naturally I was thrown in goal! But I fell in love with it from then.
“If I were to play another sport it would’ve been an individual one, and goalkeeper is the most individual role because you can be so isolated sometimes. I love the pressure of being the deciding factor in some games.”
But what individual sport what it be for Slonina if football had not worked out?
“Tennis,” he adds with a smile. “My serve’s not the best, but it’s the forehand that kills them.”
Kwame Poku: From Cray Wanderers to Accra
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Former non-league man Kwame Poku tells Sky Sports of his surreal experience of being capped by the Ghana national team and his hopes of a bright international future.
It almost seems like a fever dream now for Kwame Poku. Back in 2021, aged just 20, he was called into the Ghana national team for the first time. Just two years earlier he had been playing in non-league for Worthing, having started his career at Cray Wanderers.
“Now I think about it it’s crazy really,” says Poku of that Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Accra, where he came on as a late substitute for Mohammed Kudus.
“But I took a positive experience from playing with those players. I didn’t think there was much difference between me and them.”
Poku, now at Peterborough in League One, is dreaming of further involvement in the future.
“I want to get into a position where I’m getting called up for the national team in every break,” he says.
“They have so many good players and you probably have to be playing at a higher level to get those call-ups.
“Hopefully I can show that on the pitch and get more regular call-ups in the future. I just have to focus on my football and that’ll come.”
Francis: Training under Pep was ‘surreal’
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Exeter’s Ed Francis tells Sky Sports of his experience training under Pep Guardiola when he was part of Manchester City’s academy.
Ed Francis is back in the EFL this season and showing what he can do for Exeter City in League One.
The midfielder started his career in the same Manchester City youth side as Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho, among others, and as a teenager he often was called up to first-team training to work under Pep Guardiola.
“I remember the first time he came in when we were sat in the meeting room, and I was just absolutely gobsmacked,” Francis recalls. “He was just stood there and it was really surreal.
“He was just intense and a really good coach. I didn’t get to work that closely with him one-on-one, but I could just see the level of detail he would go into. It was leagues and leagues above.
“He was so passionate, and he’d be stood in the middle of the training pitch telling the boys where to go and where to be. It was quite mind-blowing at the time to be a part of.”
How Crowley’s faith provides perspective
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Notts County’s Dan Crowley tells Sky Sports how his faith helped him find perspective and play the best football of his career.
Dan Crowley was once tipped to be one of the best prospects to come out of Arsenal’s academy, but it never quite worked out for the 27-year-old there.
Now, he finds himself playing the best football of his career at Notts County, and his faith has helped provide perspective on his journey, and plays a huge role in why he’s now thriving.
“I don’t live like that to be honest,” says Crowley, when asked about whether he has any regrets. “For one it would drive you mad, and two I have a relationship with Jesus where I feel like everything happens for a reason and this was his plan for my life.
“I have two beautiful children and a wife, and if I’d made difference choices in my career then I possibly wouldn’t have that.
“This is just the way it is. I’m really happy here at Notts. I’m thankful to be here and to be playing the way I am in this team.”
Sanderson taking inspiration from Watkins in bid to reach the top
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Bradford’s Olly Sanderson – on loan from Fulham – tells Sky Sports that he uses Ollie Watkins’ journey to the top of the game as his own inspiration at the age of 20.
Olly Sanderson is currently on loan from Fulham at Bradford City, having previously had spells in non-league with Oxford City and last season with Sutton United in League Two.
The striker, still just 20, dreams of following a similar pathway to that of Ollie Watkins – who clambered through the leagues himself before becoming a Premier League star.
“Obviously he’s worked his way up, and that’s something I’m aspiring to do as well,” says Sanderson.
“He shows you can do it. He started in non-league and it was probably a harder process for him, because obviously I still have the comfort of Fulham at the moment.
“But seeing him do it and what he’s doing now, it is something a lot of young players can look up to, especially in non-league.”
Meet the oldest player in the EFL (with a manager younger than him!)
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Glenn Morris tells Sky Sports how he is still pulling off stunning saves in the EFL at the age of 40 in goal for Gillingham.
Gillingham goalkeeper Glenn Morris – who turns 41 in December – is the oldest player to play in the top four divisions of English football so far this season.
And, at Priestfield, he is playing under Mark Bonner – who is two years his junior. It’s a rare occurrence in modern football, but one Morris is taking in his stride.
“I don’t look at it that way. I feel young, I’m around young people all the time,” he says.
“Mark is a really good manager but, first and foremost, a really good man. We’re all enjoying playing for him.
“The training sessions are really good, the environment’s really good and the team spirit is there.
“I’m enjoying all parts of it. When you get towards the end of your career, you look at it from a different angle. I’m not just happy to be there; I’m enjoying all that comes with it.”
Morris is a prime example of goalkeepers ageing like fine wine. He has kept four clean sheets in eight League Two games this term, conceded only six goals and has an impressive 84.6 per cent save statistic to date.
Not that he’s particularly fussed about the numbers.
“I don’t really look into stats too much,” he adds. “The most important one is a clean sheet on a Saturday and Gillingham winning.”
Tuesday night’s 31 EFL games live on Sky Sports+
All 7.45pm kick-off unless stated
- CH: Cardiff vs Portsmouth, Leeds vs Watford, Oxford vs Derby, Preston vs Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday vs Swansea, Stoke vs Bristol City, QPR vs Coventry (8pm)
- L1: Barnsley vs Charlton, Birmingham vs Bolton, Bristol Rovers vs Shrewsbury, Burton vs Wycombe, Crawley vs Lincoln, Exeter vs Reading, Leyton Orient vs Rotherham, Peterborough vs Blackpool, Stevenage vs Cambridge, Stockport vs Northampton, Wigan vs Mansfield, Wrexham vs Huddersfield
- L2: AFC Wimbledon vs Morecambe, Barrow vs Notts County, Cheltenham vs Bradford, Chesterfield vs Colchester, Doncaster vs Bromley, Fleetwood vs Crewe, Gillingham vs Newport, Harrogate vs Port Vale, MK Dons vs Accrington, Salford vs Swindon, Tranmere vs Grimsby, Walsall vs Carlisle
