Play-off place is now the target for the under-23s
Last Friday saw our under-23s knocked out of the Premier League Cup by Leeds United and that’s left us to concentrate on the league in our chase for second place and an end of season play-off spot.
Whilst Swansea and then Newcastle joined Leeds in the semi-finals, with Everton and Blackburn still to play later in the month, there weren’t many games played in the league during the last week. Only three north group teams had fixtures with Nottingham Forest winning at Sheffield Wednesday on Monday and Sheffield United being held to a draw by south group Coventry a day later.
Neither of those results had any effect at the top of the north group but Coventry’s point did in the south. It’s left them seven points behind leaders Ipswich with only two games remaining and that means only Crystal Palace, currently one point behind Coventry but with a game in hand, can pass, or even reach, the leaders and that means a definite play-off place for Ipswich, likely to be as champions.
That would mean they would be our opponents in the semi-final should we get through and the current situation remains that we need to better Birmingham and Bolton, who have one game less to play, in our last three games and two of those games will be played in the next four days. We travel to Nottingham Forest tomorrow before facing Colchester on Monday in our final home game of the season at Gawthorpe.
Birmingham play Cardiff on Saturday but Bolton will have to wait until next Wednesday to play their next game at home against Charlton.
The player featured this week is Tinashe Chakwana, one of the players released two days ago. For some time this season he was neck and neck with Dan Agyei at the top of the scoring charts but hasn’t had many opportunities recently to play up front.
The League Tables are updated as results are confirmed and they can be found along with our Fixtures and Results within U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
Last week’s results, this week’s fixtures, the league’s leading goalscorers, our goalscorers and the current league tables are all below.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE
Friday 29th March
Bristol City 1 Coventry 3
Watford 0 Cardiff 0
Monday 1st April
Sheffield Wednesday 0 Nottingham Forest 1
Tuesday 2nd April
Sheffield United 1 Coventry 1
Charlton 2 Millwall 1
PREMIER LEAGUE CUP
Friday 29th March
Everton 2 Sunderland 1 – outstanding game from Round of 16
Burnley 1 Leeds 3
Nottingham Forest 0 Swansea 0 – Swansea won 3-0 on penalties
Monday 1st April
Newcastle 3 Derby 2
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
Friday 5th April
Barnsley v Bristol City
Nottingham Forest v Burnley
Saturday 6th April
Birmingham v Cardiff
Hull v Crystal Palace
Monday 8th April
Burnley v Colchester
Crewe v Coventry
Leeds v Ipswich
Nottingham Forest v Millwall
Sheffield United v QPR
Sheffield Wednesday v Watford
Wednesday 10th April
Bolton v Charlton
LEADING GOALSCORERS (LEAGUE)
16: Dan Agyei (Burnley)
11: Tinashe Chakwana (Burnley), Aramide Oteh (QPR)
10: Oli Finney (Crewe), Michael Folivi (Watford)
9: Kian Flanagan (Crystal Palace), Ben Folami (Ipswich), Keane Lewis-Potter (Hull), Levi Lumeka (Crystal Palace), Kyle McFarlane (Birmingham), Lewis Reilly (Crewe), Mason Saunders-Henry (Millwall)
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS (LEAGUE & CUPS)
24: Dan Agyei
14: Tinashe Chakwana
5: Rob Harker, Dwight McNeil
4: Tunde Bayode, Marley Blair, Lewis Richardson
3: Jordan Cropper, Bobby Thomas
2: Josh Benson, Ali Koiki, own goals
1: Michael Fowler, Mark Howarth, Christian N’Guessan, Ne-Jai Tucker, Matěj Vydra, Nahki Wells, Oliver Younger
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLES
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Leeds | 26 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 54 | 29 | 53 |
| Birmingham City | 25 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 41 | 22 | 42 |
| Burnley | 25 | 13 | 3 | 9 | 57 | 43 | 42 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 26 | 13 | 3 | 10 | 37 | 39 | 42 |
| Crewe Alexandra | 26 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 43 | 37 | 41 |
| Barnsley | 26 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 32 | 42 | 35 |
| Nottingham Forest | 25 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 45 | 39 | 34 |
| Sheffield United | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 34 | 41 | 32 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 26 | 9 | 5 | 12 | 32 | 46 | 32 |
| Hull City | 25 | 4 | 6 | 15 | 28 | 51 | 18 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Ipswich Town | 25 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 64 | 30 | 49 |
| Coventry City | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 46 | 37 | 42 |
| Crystal Palace | 25 | 12 | 5 | 8 | 50 | 42 | 41 |
| Millwall | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 31 | 29 | 36 |
| Charlton Athletic | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 41 | 41 | 36 |
| Bristol City | 26 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 43 | 46 | 35 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 54 | 58 | 31 |
| Cardiff City | 26 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 37 | 38 | 29 |
| Watford | 24 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 26 | 43 | 20 |
| Colchester United | 26 | 6 | 2 | 18 | 30 | 72 | 20 |
Share this page :