Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Ricky Charlesworth

Sepp van den Berg comes out on top in duel against fellow Liverpool star Nat Phillips

Liverpool maintained their hunt of title rivals Manchester City on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp's side sealed a narrow victory over West Ham at Anfield to trim the gap at the top to just three points prior to the Manchester derby.

Away from Merseyside, the weekend saw a mixed bag for their clutch of players out on loan away from the club.

Here, we look at the six players who are on temporary deals at EFL clubs and see how they got over the weekend.

Will Liverpool pip Man City to this season's Premier League title? Let us know in the comments

Neco Williams

The full-back almost scored one of the goals of the season on Saturday as Fulham beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 at Craven Cottage.

The Welshman, who arrived at Fulham on deadline day, almost added his name to the score-sheet in spectacular style.

Williams tried his luck from just inside the Rovers half late on in the game. After a bursting run from his own box, he looked up and clearly spotted goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski off his line.

He then unleashed a superb attempt that beat the back-pedalling Kaminski only for it to rebound agonisingly off the crossbar.

It would have been Williams' first-ever league goal but it didn't take the gloss off another impressive performance as table-toppers Fulham moved closer to an immediate Premier League return.

Nat Phillips

Phillips played the full 90 minutes as Bournemouth suffered a shock loss away at Preston in a game that finished in controversy.

The defender made an early mistake when he presented Ched Evans with the game's first shot on target, but he firmed up after that.

Phillips put in a number of good blocks and could, and possibly should, have scored only to see a diving header brilliantly kept out by the Preston stopper Daniel Iversen.

The Cherries ended up 2-1 losers and saw both manager Scott Parker and defender Adam Smith sent off after protesting against Preston's winner.

Sepp van den Berg

That same game at Deepdale saw Phillips' Anfield colleague van den Berg come out on the winning side.

The Dutchman has been a regular for North End and like Phillips, he started shakily here with a clutch of misplaced passes.

But as the game wore on van den Berg grew more composed and won more than his fair share of headers, particularly in the second half.

Also helped Preston hold firm as they sealed a stand-out win against promotion-chasing opposition.

Ben Davies

The defender, who has yet to make his Liverpool debut, didn't have the easiest of nights on Friday as Sheffield United took on Nottingham Forest.

The Forest attack included plenty of pace but Davies dealt relatively well against it. He produced one fine block in particular, to deny Keinan Davis.

The only blot on his copybook, on what was his first start for a month, was a third yellow card of the season.

Jake Cain

Midfielder Cain played the full 90 minutes as Newport County sealed a 1-0 win over Bristol Rovers.

He produced an accomplished display as the Welsh side moved up to fourth and maintain hopes of an automatic promotion spot.

Cain came close to scoring his first-ever senior goal too, going close with a free-kick before seeing another attempt kept at bay late on.

Encouraging stuff from the 20-year-old.

Paul Glatzel

Striker Glatzel made his first outing for Tranmere in almost a month after suffering with a hamstring injury.

He came on as a 56th minute sub but couldn't prevent a 3-2 defeat away at second-placed Northampton.

Tranmere slip down to sixth in League Two.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.