New leaders in the south in youth league
The north league was worst hit by the weather with only two of the six games kicking off and only one coming to a conclusion with fixtures at Everton, Leeds, Stoke and Sunderland all ruled out.
We did get our 2021 underway but only for 27 minutes before snow brought a halt to our game at Wolves while at Brockhall, in the one game completed, Blackburn failed to close the gap on fourth from bottom Newcastle and remain on five points from their thirteen games.
They were close to getting a point though against league leaders Manchester United. Not only did United score first but they held a 3-0 lead at half time only to see Blackburn draw level some ten minutes from the end through a second half hat trick scored by Zak Gilsenan. It wasn’t to be and it was the son of one of their former players who scored the winner for United; Charlie Savage, son of Robbie, netting two minutes from the end.
The south, who were hit with the snow on the Sunday, managed to get four of their five games in with the one postponed at Aston Villa. The four that were played produced a staggering 24 goals, an average of six per game. The highest scoring game was Fulham’s 6-3 win against Brighton. With leaders Crystal Palace without a game, this result enabled Fulham to move ahead of them to top the league this week.
Both Arsenal, in the North London derby against Spurs, and Chelsea hit four while West Brom scored five at Reading.
We will make another attempt at getting the year underway this Saturday and it couldn’t be much tougher than a home game against Manchester United who now lead the table by six points.
The player featured this week is 17-year-old full back Dane McCullough who was signed on a two year scholarship from Portadown last summer.
The League Tables and our Fixtures and Results can be found within U23/U18 Stats on the top menu.
All last week’s results and this week’s fixtures are below along with our goalscorers and the current league tables.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS
North
Saturday 23rd January
Blackburn 3 Manchester United 4
Everton v Manchester City – match postponed, rearranged for 27th April
Leeds v Newcastle – match postponed
Stoke v Liverpool – match postponed, rearranged for 9th February
Sunderland v Middlesbrough – match postponed, rearranged for 2nd February
Wolves 0 Burnley 0 – abandoned after 27 minutes, due to snow
South
Saturday 23rd January
Arsenal 4 Tottenham 1
Aston Villa v Norwich – match postponed
Fulham 6 Brighton 3
Reading 1 West Brom 5
West Ham 0 Chelsea 4
THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES
North
Saturday 30th January
Burnley v Manchester United
Manchester City v Liverpool
Middlesbrough v Leeds
Newcastle v Derby
Stoke v Everton
Wolves v Blackburn
South
Saturday 30th January
Crystal Palace v Arsenal
Fulham v West Ham
Leicester v Norwich
Reading v Aston Villa
Southampton v Chelsea
Tottenham v Brighton
BURNLEY’S GOALSCORERS
6: Sam Unwin
4: Joe McGlynn
2: Jake Rooney
1: Michael Mellon, Dylan Moonan, Kade Ratchford, Joe Smyth-Ferguson, Ben Woods
CURRENT LEAGUE TABLES
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Manchester United | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 36 | 12 | 33 |
| Liverpool | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 40 | 15 | 27 |
| Manchester City | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 27 | 6 | 24 |
| Wolves | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 14 | 21 |
| Everton | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 21 | 18 | 19 |
| Middlesbrough | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 21 | 17 | 17 |
| Burnley | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 17 | 22 | 13 |
| Derby | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 15 | 27 | 12 |
| Stoke | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 24 | 11 |
| Newcastle | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 18 | 21 | 8 |
| Blackburn | 13 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 16 | 35 | 5 |
| Leeds | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 27 | 5 |
| Sunderland | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 23 | 4 |
| Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | pts |
| Fulham | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 31 | 18 | 26 |
| Crystal Palace | 11 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 16 | 24 |
| Tottenham | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 30 | 14 | 22 |
| Aston Villa | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 12 | 22 |
| Arsenal | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 23 | 18 | 19 |
| Brighton | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 29 | 21 | 18 |
| Chelsea | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 30 | 16 | 17 |
| Norwich | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 28 | 25 | 16 |
| West Brom | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 29 | 12 |
| West Ham | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 26 | 10 |
| Reading | 11 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 23 | 35 | 8 |
| Southampton | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 17 | 28 | 5 |
| Leicester | 11 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 15 | 42 | 2 |
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