Donley named EFL Young Player of the Month
Fri 14 February 2025, 15:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Jamie Donley has claimed January’s award for EFL Young Player of the Month.
The left-footed centre-forward, currently on loan at Leyton Orient for the 2024/25 campaign, turned 20 on 3 January and marked his birth month with a scintillating run of form, scoring three goals and assisting three more in Orient’s five League One games.
As the east London outfit have transformed their fortunes over the past two months, Jamie has been at the thick of it - and has now scooped the prize which honours the best young player for the calendar month across the Championship, League One and League Two.
He joins first-team players James Maddison, Brennan Johnson and Djed Spence as a recipient of the award.
Having endured difficult beginnings at Brisbane Road, most felt in October and November as minutes became hard to come by, the versatile attack-minded player has now started each of Orient's last 13 games and has helped them rise from the edge of the relegation zone to the cusp of the play-off places.
And that has culminated in his stunning January. Perfectly placing a free-kick, in-off-the-post from a tight angle in a 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers on New Year’s Day to kick-off his run, he then struck from an even tighter angle just three days later as Orient took a 1-0 win at home to Shrewsbury Town.
He capped off a fantastic month of football with a looping volley to tie the bow on a dominant 6-2 win at Exeter City.
And he is showing no signs of slowing down – outside of league play, he made national headlines with his stunning lob from around the centre circle in Orient’s eventual 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round.
