Cardiff’s win boosts youth team play-off hopes
We went into the last round of fixtures in third place in the U18 Professional Development Group north section, five points behind second place Leeds United with a game in hand, but we’ve come out of it having closed the gap to two points thanks to Cardiff City beating Leeds.
Cardiff are the south group leaders and they travelled to Leeds last Saturday and beat them 2-0 to become the first team to reach fifty points this season. With our game against QPR ruled out because of the weather, it then left us with two games in hand, one of which was played three days later.
That game ended in a 5-1 win against Sheffield United and so the situational is now that we are just two points behind Leeds with a game in hand and the goal differences couldn’t be much closers; ours is plus 18 while it is plus 17 for Leeds.
Sheffield Wednesday still lead the league. They are two points ahead of Leeds but, like us, have one game in hand. Wednesday are a strong side. They have scored more goals than any other team in the league whilst also having the best defensive record.
Half of the games were called off last Saturday as the rain swept in; our game against QPR has now been rearranged for Tuesday 9th April. One of the other games saw Nottingham Forest beat Charlton and that result took them above us until our win on Tuesday. They remain very much a threat, just one point below us but having played a game more. It’s unlikely any of the other teams will now be able to push for a top four finish although Sheffield United, in fifth place, have played less games than any other team.
There was a surprise win for Hull. They remain bottom of the north group but have now moved within two points of Crewe while in the final game played, Ipswich’s win at Birmingham has kept them very much on track for a top two finish in the south group with Cardiff.
We’ve no game this weekend and we’ll next be in action at Crystal Palace a week on Saturday after which we’ll have three home games before ending with a trip to play south group leaders Cardiff.
The player featured this week is Joe Conley. He scored the fourth of our goals in Tuesday’s win; it was his first goal for our youth team.
The League Tables are updated as results are confirmed. They can be found with our Fixtures and Results within U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
Last week’s results, this week’s fixtures, our goalscorers and the current league tables are all below.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
Saturday 16th March
Barnsley 3 Crystal Palace 1
Birmingham 2 Ipswich 3
Bolton v Millwall – match postponed
Burnley v QPR – match postponed
Crewe v Watford – match postponed
Hull 4 Bristol City 0
Leeds 0 Cardiff 2
Nottingham Forest 3 Charlton 0
Sheffield United v Colchester – match postponed
Sheffield Wednesday v Coventry – match postponed
Tuesday 19th March
Burnley 5 Sheffield United 1
Hull 4 Barnsley 1
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
Thursday 21st March
Ipswich v Charlton
Saturday 23rd March
Barnsley v Nottingham Forest
Birmingham v Leeds
Sheffield United v Hull
Crewe v Watford
Coventry v Crystal Palace
Millwall v QPR
Tuesday 26th March
Bolton v Millwall
Crystal Palace v QPR
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS (LEAGUE & CUPS)
18: Michael Fowler
9: Mitch George
6:Lewis Richardson
4: Ne-Jai Tucker
3: Cricky Conn-Clarke, Will Harris
2: Jayden Major, Dylon Meredith, Matt O’Neill, Matty Rain
1: Joe Conley, Rhys Fenlon, Dan Moss, Terry Mupariwa, Edon Pruti, Bobby Thomas, Kian Yari, own goals
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLE
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 61 | 20 | 49 |
| Leeds | 24 | 15 | 2 | 7 | 52 | 35 | 47 |
| Burnley | 23 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 55 | 37 | 45 |
| Nottingham Forest | 24 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 47 | 28 | 44 |
| Sheffield United | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 30 | 29 | 35 |
| Barnsley | 24 | 8 | 5 | 11 | 38 | 42 | 29 |
| Birmingham City | 22 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 36 | 44 | 27 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 22 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 42 | 58 | 23 |
| Crewe Alexandra | 23 | 6 | 3 | 14 | 32 | 64 | 21 |
| Hull City | 23 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 33 | 44 | 19 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Cardiff City | 23 | 16 | 2 | 5 | 53 | 23 | 50 |
| Ipswich Town | 23 | 15 | 1 | 7 | 59 | 39 | 46 |
| Millwall | 22 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 52 | 29 | 38 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 22 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 41 | 32 | 36 |
| Bristol City | 24 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 33 | 45 | 29 |
| Charlton Athletic | 23 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 37 | 39 | 28 |
| Watford | 23 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 43 | 49 | 27 |
| Crystal Palace | 20 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 39 | 44 | 26 |
| Coventry City | 22 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 28 | 53 | 20 |
| Colchester United | 23 | 0 | 5 | 18 | 28 | 85 | 5 |
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