Morecambe manager Ged Brannan was thrilled to see Charlie Brown join the endless list of players to have haunted their old clubs after his late winner snatched a 1-0 victory at MK Dons.
Former Chelsea youngster Brown scored just three goals in 32 appearances for the Dons and struggled to get into the Shrimps side in the first half of the season after joining them last summer.
After opening his Morecambe account in the draw against Mansfield last week, it was his strike in the second minute of stoppage time that completed an impressive second-half turnaround at Stadium MK.
Brannan said: “You couldn’t write it, could you?
“Absolutely brilliant, what a lad, last week he scored again, he’s come on today and caught them on the break, dropped the shoulder and it was a great strike into the bottom corner.
“I’m made up for him, top lad, it was a great finish.
“You don’t want to know (what was said at half-time).
“We’ve had loads and loads of talks about conceding early goals, early in the second half as well, and to go and concede a goal after one minute was devastating because we know how much we’ve been working on it.
“We had a little heated debate at half-time, got a few things sorted out and, as you can see, it worked.”
The play-off chasing Dons were ahead inside 75 seconds thanks to an excellent curled finish from Max Dean and only excellent saves from Archie Mair to deny Warren O’Hora and Dean prevented them from building a commanding lead.
Morecambe hit back after 51 minutes when debutant goalkeeper Filip Marschall missed Jake Taylor’s corner and Jordan Slew bundled in.
Brown then provided the sting in the tail when he pounced on a slip by Lewis Bate before finishing beyond Marschall to earn just a second win in 12 Sky Bet League Two games for the Shrimps.
Dons boss Mike Williamson said: “I think in the first half every time they tried to press, we found a way and I thought we connected the centre-halves to the 10s a little bit better, and our movement was very good.
“We’ll have to watch it back and I thought for them coming out for the second half, they were disappointed from the first one and they can afford to take a few more risks and get on the front foot.
“That’s the nature of it when you’re 1-0 up, it’s always in the balance and we just needed to improve our ball speed, more than anything, and keep moving them like we did in the first half.
“But the lads have been fantastic. We focus on the things we can control and I thought they were very good at doing that today.”
Chelsea not focused on Liverpool and Man City, insists Jackson after Leicester win
Chelsea are not getting carried away by talk of a title challenge following their 2-1 win over Leicester City, according to striker Nicolas Jackson.
Jackson netted his seventh Premier League goal of the season and was joined on the scoresheet by Enzo Fernandez on Saturday, as Enzo Maresca got one over on his former club at the King Power Stadium.
The result lifted the Blues to 22 points in third, just one adrift of champions Manchester City in second and six behind leaders Liverpool.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Jackson said: "We know the months of November and December have a lot of games, so we just try to recover for the next one and go again.
"I saw the danger, then the ball came to Enzo, he gave it to me and he finished. I'm just working in every game to try to help the team win."
Asked if Chelsea were now thinking of themselves as title challengers, he added: "No, we don't look at the teams in front of us, we just try to win every game."
Five of Jackson's goals this season have come on the road, the most of any player in the Premier League.
Since the start of May, only Erling Haaland (18) has bettered Jackson's 11 goals in the competition overall.
Leicester got a stoppage-time consolation through Jordan Ayew's penalty, though they earlier felt aggrieved not to be awarded a spot-kick when Stephy Mavididi was seemingly felled by Wesley Fofana in the 85th minute.
Boss Steve Cooper lamented that call, saying: "We've had some terrible luck with this referee. That continued today.
"There's also the game to talk about. Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball. We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0.
"Defensively we were generally okay. We need to be showing courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be a threat.
"The big moment is the first penalty not given, it's clear what happened there. The second one was offside [before VAR] and you see how onside he was.
"That was the story of the officials' game. You can speak to them after 30 minutes. I'm not sure if I will or won't."
'It's an honour' - Flick delighted by Messi's Barcelona praise
Hansi Flick says it is an "honour" to hear Lionel Messi praise Barcelona's start to the season.
Flick took over as Barcelona head coach in May, with the club making an impressive start to LaLiga, as they sit top on 33 points after 13 matches.
They have won 11 of their games, losing the other two, while they are sixth in the Champions League table, just three points behind leaders Liverpool.
Messi, who spent 17 years at Barcelona before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, recently described Flick's team as "spectacular", in particular lauding his use of young players in the team.
The German has not shied away from using academy players during his time at Barcelona so far, with Lamine Yamal the standout of the bunch after he carried last season's form into this campaign.
Yamal is the only player across Europe's big five leagues to complete 25+ dribbles (34), create 25+ chances (26), have 25+ shots (39), score 5+ goals (five) and provide 5+ assists (seven).
When asked how he felt about Messi's comments, Flick was delighted.
"It's an honour to hear the best player in history say that he likes this Barca," he told reporters.
"He follows the team closely, he has his heart set on this club, that means a lot to the youngsters and to the team."
Barcelona return to LaLiga action when they travel to Celta Vigo on Saturday, looking to extend their lead at the top of the league.
Simeone makes LaLiga history with 700th game in charge of Atletico
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone has become the first manager to take charge of 700 games with the same LaLiga club.
The Argentine hit the milestone as his Atleti side welcomed Alaves to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano on Saturday.
Simeone first took charge of Los Rojiblancos in December 2011 and has gone on to become the most successful manager in the club's history, having brought eight honours to the Spanish capital.
The former midfielder guided Atletico to the LaLiga title in 2014 and 2021, while also overseeing two Europa League triumphs in 2012 and 2018 in addition to helping them reach two Champions League finals.
Saturday's game is Simeone's 492nd LaLiga match in charge - the most by any manager at a single club - and he has also managed the third-most games with a single club in the Champions League (109), after Alex Ferguson with Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
Atleti have won each of their last four matches across all competitions, and another on Saturday would be the 54-year-old's 300th in the Spanish top flight.
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