Loan report: Beadle and Cashin help Blues beat the leaders

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Loan players helped Birmingham to an important victory on Sunday.

Charlie Hanson

2026-01-05T11:15+00:00

Eiran Cashin brings the ball out of defence during Birmingham's win over Coventry at St Andrew's on Sunday. 📷BCFC

A West Midlands derby and a League One play-off push were the key points of interest for our players on loan.

Carl Rushworth’s Coventry continued their blip as they fell to a 3-2 defeat to Birmingham City at St Andrew's. James Beadle played in goal for the Blues, while Eiran Cashin came on for the final 35 minutes to help Birmingham become only the third team to beat the Sky Blues this season.

It marked the end of a seven-game winless streak for Chris Davies’s team who sit in mid-table. The Sky Blues still have a six-point lead at the top of the second tier, but have won just two of their last eight league matches.

James Beadle clears his lines during Birmingham City's 3-2 win over leaders Coventry at St Andrew's on Sunday. 📷BCFC

Also in the Championship, Malick Yalcouye has fought his way back in the Swansea starting line-up for their last two games, but was substituted off after an hour in their 2-1 defeat to Millwall on Sunday. The Swans' form under new boss Vitor Matos has been largely positive of late, with five wins in their last eight outings.

In the tier below, Amario Cozier-Duberry’s Bolton made it a winless week as they lost to Mansfield Town, before drawing with Doncaster Rovers – when Amario got an assist in a 1-1 draw – and then played out a goalless tussle with Northampton on Sunday. Those results saw them slip to nine points off an automatic promotion spot.

Kamari Doyle’s fortunes are at the other end of the scale as he started in all three of Reading’s games last week: a draw with Peterborough, a 2-0 win over Burton Albion 2-0 and Sunday's 1-0 success against Stockport County which saw the Royals move to within four points of the play-offs. That represents an impressive recovery for Leam Richardson's team, who were 18th and only out of the relegation zone on goal difference in mid-December.

In Ligue 1, Matt O’Riley was substituted on for the final 30 minutes of Marseille’s 2-0 defeat to Nantes, while Ibrahim Osman played the full 90 minutes in Auxerre’s 2-0 loss to Stade Brest.

In Italy, Evan Ferguson grabbed a goal and an assist in Roma’s 3-1 win over Genoa at the start of last week, but couldn’t stop his side slipping to a 1-0 defeat against Atalanta on Sunday.