Huddersfield miss chance to go top as youth league restarts
The U18 Professional Development League’s Christmas break is over and the second half of the season kicked off with a full fixture list last Saturday with only Burnley, initially, not involved.
However, the ten fixtures became seven with one rescheduled and two more falling victim to the weather. One of those postponed games was Bolton’s away fixture against Crewe. Bolton went into the weekend at the top of the league but with that postponement, there was a chance of them dropping two places.
We sit third but the two teams either side of us, Huddersfield and Leeds, had the opportunity to move ahead of Bolton with Huddersfield only needing a point to go top of the league. They didn’t get that point; they were soundly beaten 4-0 at home by Birmingham, leaving Leeds with the opportunity to move into first place on goal difference. They needed a win at Sheffield Wednesday but they too fell to a surprise defeat, going down 3-0.
That leaves Bolton still leading the north group with Birmingham moving up to third place with their win which has seen us drop one place to fourth.
It should have been first v second in the south group, Crystal Palace against Millwall, but that was the other game to fall victim of the weather. Palace have a commanding nine point lead at the top of the table with Watford one further point behind second place Millwall.
We’ve got a tough one to kick off our year this coming Saturday. Having been beaten by Plymouth last Friday in the FA Youth Cup, we will be looking to continue our recent good form in the league. We’ve won our last three games, although all of them were played in November.
The player featured is Jordan Barnett who was signed recently from Penistone Church FC.
The League Tables will be updated as results are confirmed. 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, our goalscorers and the current league tables can be found below.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
Saturday 6th January
Crewe v Bolton – postponed
Huddersfield 0 Birmingham 4
Hull 1 Barnsley 3
Nottingham Forest 2 Sheffield United 0
Sheffield Wednesday 3 Leeds 0
Bristol City 4 Charlton 2
Colchester 1 Cardiff 4
Crystal Palace v Millwall – postponed
Ipswich 5 Coventry 1
Watford v QPR – rescheduled
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
Friday 12th January
Charlton v Watford
QPR v Colchester
Saturday 13th January
Barnsley v Huddersfield
Birmingham v Crewe
Bolton v Burnley
Sheffield United v Leeds
Sheffield Wednesday v Hull
Cardiff v Crystal Palace
Coventry v Bristol City
Millwall v Ipswich
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS (League & Cups)
6: Jordan Cropper
5: Tristan Jumeau
3: Michael Fowler, Dwight McNeil, Kian Yari
2: Bobby Thomas
1: James Clarke, Leighton Egan, Craig Ellison, Mitchell George, Dylon Meredith, Terry Mupariwa, Oliver Younger, own goals
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLES
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Bolton Wanderers | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 40 | 32 | 27 |
| Huddersfield Town | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 35 | 36 | 27 |
| Birmingham City | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 37 | 31 | 26 |
| Burnley | 15 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 27 | 29 | 26 |
| Nottingham Forest | 16 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 42 | 30 | 24 |
| Leeds United | 16 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 37 | 30 | 24 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 16 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 34 | 28 | 22 |
| Hull City | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 29 | 28 | 22 |
| Sheffield United | 15 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 21 | 25 | 22 |
| Barnsley | 17 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 29 | 35 | 22 |
| Crewe Alexandra | 15 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 34 | 28 | 17 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Crystal Palace | 16 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 39 | 16 | 36 |
| Millwall | 16 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 37 | 33 | 27 |
| Watford | 14 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 33 | 19 | 26 |
| Bristol City | 16 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 33 | 26 | 22 |
| Charlton Athletic | 16 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 29 | 34 | 21 |
| Cardiff City | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 30 | 23 | 18 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 15 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 30 | 41 | 18 |
| Ipswich Town | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 27 | 44 | 18 |
| Colchester United | 17 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 21 | 52 | 10 |
| Coventry City | 15 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 15 | 39 | 9 |
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