Manchester United youngster Amad scored the first goal of his Sunderland loan spell on Saturday, handing them the lead in their 4-2 defeat by Burnley at the Stadium of Light.
Awarded a rare start, the Ivorian swept Tony Mowbray's side into a 16th-minute lead against the Clarets, finishing nicely from inside the penalty area. Dan Neil doubled the home side's lead four minutes later, but Burnley staged an impressive second-half fightback to claim all three points.
Nevertheless, it was a step in the right direction for Amad, who had recently been encouraged to take more risks in the final third by Mowbray. He will now be hoping that his goal against Vincent Kompany's side is the catalyst for more of the same to come, following a fairly slow start to life at the Championship club.
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Meanwhile, Dean Henderson played a key role in helping Nottingham Forest register a shock 1-0 win over Liverpool at the City Ground, helping them secure just their second Premier League win of the season. He produced a collection of fine saves, particularly late on, to record a rare clean sheet and help Forest pick up a priceless win.
Ethan Laird was also on the winning side on Saturday, helping QPR remain top of the Championship table. He started the Rs' 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic at Loftus Road and was his usual, busy self down the right-flank, regularly bombing forward from right-back to support the attackers.
Elsewhere in the Championship, there was not so much luck for Hannibal Mejbri at Birmingham City. He had to settle for a place on the bench as they saw their three-game unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of automatic promotion hopefuls Blackburn Rovers, losing 2-1.
The midfielder has been excellent for the Blues in recent weeks, meaning his omission from the starting line-up came as a big surprise. But manager John Eustace suggested that his absence was for nothing other than rotation.
"The way he has played in the last couple of games has been phenomenal," admitted Eustace. "He has broken records for total distance, all that kind of stuff.
"It was important we also used the squad. [Juninho] Bacuna came in today and did well and Hanni came on for that last half hour and was very good. I have said it is a squad game, everyone will be used, we are certainty stretched at the moment but it's important everyone gets that opportunity to play and feel wanted."
Alvaro Fernandez, meanwhile, experienced a disappointing afternoon with Preston North End. They were beaten 4-2 by rivals Blackpool at Bloomfield Road and the United loanee was booked.
Further down the English football pyramid, Ethan Galbraith started as Salford City were beaten 2-0 at home by League Two rivals Stockport County. The midfielder was booked and then taken off before the hour mark.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, Will Fish was an unused substitute for Hibernian on Friday evening as they were beaten 2-1 by St Johnstone. Overseas, Alex Telles played the full 90 minutes for Sevilla as they were beaten 3-1 by Real Madrid on Saturday.
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