Moorhouse return ends busy window for Man Utd kids

Jack Moorhouse's return to Manchester United from his loan spell at Leyton Orient slipped under the radar on Monday night.

It wasn't expected in the sense Moorhouse had made 24 appearances for the League One club this season, including as a substitute against Port Vale on Saturday.

But Moorhouse was effectively being squeezed by Dylan Levitt's move to the London club from Hibernian, so United recalled the 20-year-old, who was on the first-team bench four times last season without making his senior bow.

It completed a very busy transfer window for United's academy staff.

In total, the club brought nine players back to the club who they loaned out in the summer, three of whom – Toby Collyer, Harry Amass and Ethan Wheatley – have left on second loans and one, Joe Hugill, has left the club permanently.

James Scanlon, Jacob Devaney and Gabriele Biancheri had loans to Swindon Town, St Mirren and Rotherham United confirmed on Monday, while goalkeeper Radek Vitek, midfielder Dan Gore and wingers Ethan Ennis and Ethan Williams remain with Bristol City, Rotherham, Fleetwood Town and Falkirk respectively.

With Adam Lawrence replacing Travis Binnion as under-21 coach for the rest of the season, there has been a lot of upheaval, although it didn't seem to bother them too much on Monday night as Shea Lacey scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win at West Brom that put United back top of the Premier League 2 table.